Dark to Light - Book One of the From Ashes Trilogy
by PartFootball
Summary: The attack on Vale leads to tragedy, and an even greater evil awakening. This is an alternate timeline from the start of Volume 2 Chapter 11 (No Brakes). This story contains topics that may offend some readers, including language, violence, mild gore, and sexual assault. Cover art by noxypep on tumblr. Put on hold indefinitely, likely permanently.
1. The Train

_ "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."_

_-Seneca_

* * *

Yang sprinted ahead of her teammates, intent on finding her sister. This was no time for caution, Ruby was missing, and she knew her sister's lack of combat prowess without her weapon.

"Yang! Slow down!" Weiss's voice echoed down the tunnel, following Yang around each corner, and finding her standing at a fork in the path. Yang stood there, panicking, trying to discern which direction the hole on the surface led to.

"RUBY!" she screamed as her heart tried to tear itself out of her chest, each beat pounding in her ear with unbridled energy.

Blake was the first to catch up to her, followed closely by Weiss and Oobleck. Yang turned to the Faunus in desperation, anguish in her eyes as she searched for an answer as to where her sister had vanished to. "Blake, please, you've got to be able to hear something, can't you? There's got to be a way to find her! I can't lose her. I can't fail Dad," she pleaded while her eyes blazed red.

Blake nodded in silent understanding and strained her ears beneath her bow, intent on picking up anything that might give them a clue as to the whereabouts of their leader. She turned white as a sheet as her ears twitched, then sped off down one tunnel without a word. Yang took no time to process and hurried after her without question.

"What?! Wait! Where are you two going?!"

"Do not tarry, we must follow them! Blake must have heard something!" Oobleck's voice followed them as he spurred Weiss along.

Yang rounded another corner and was immediately yanked down and hushed by Blake. "There they are, but there's too many of them for us to take on alone-" Blake was cut off by a piercing scream.

Yang shot up immediately and barreled into the cavern, shooting past White Fang guards before they could even acknowledge her. By the time they managed to bring their weapons about to face her, the rest of the team was upon them. Weiss used a glyph to shield any fire directed at Yang, while Blake leapt forward to engage the White Fang soldiers as Oobleck focused on the Paladins.

As the fighting raged on behind her, Yang plowed her way through more White Fang guards. Not a single grunt was able to get a shot in as she approached the source of the screams. When she located the room that held her sister, nothing could stop her from entering. One shot from Ember Celica destroyed the door's lock, quickly followed up by Yang throwing her weight into the door, which knocked it clean off its hinges.

The room was dark save a spotlight above the chair in the center where Ruby was bound, bleeding profusely from cuts across her exposed abdomen. "Ruby!" Yang's eyes locked on her sister and she hurried over to free her. "Who did this to you?" Yang's question was answered by a sharp blow on the back of her head.

Yang staggered, momentarily disoriented from the sudden attack, but managed to get a glimpse of a White Fang soldier running through the back exit, coiling a whip. She tore her attention away from revenge and back to her sister.

Ruby was on the verge of consciousness. Yang's fingers accidentally brushed the back of her sister's skin as she untied the knots that bound her, causing Ruby to scream and shrink away.

"No! Please, no more!" Ruby cried.

"Ruby, hey, it's me! It's Yang. It's ok, I'm here now," Yang pulled her sister in a hug, shocked at the reaction. "Don't worry, I've got you. It's all over now."

Ruby blinked away tears, looking up at who was holding her and began sobbing. "I thought you would never find me. He kept saying all these things he was going to do to me and… and…" her voice was shaking and she shrank into herself at the memory.

Yang sank down to the floor to untie Ruby's legs. As she did, she noticed a small pool of blood on the seat of the chair.

_Wait, _Yang's eyes traveled up. _That isn't from her stomach… _

The sudden realization of what had happened hit her like a train. Yang hurriedly averted her eyes, trying to preserve what little decency her sister had left.

The rest of the group burst through the door, led by Oobleck. "Yang! Have you found her?" He quickly checked the rest of the room before returning to Ruby to assess her wounds. "There doesn't seem to anything that won't heal, but these will definitely scar."

The heiress approached and immediately began to question the younger girl. "Ruby, is there anything you heard from them that can tell us what their plans are? Did they mention their plans for the dust they stole from my family? What about the Paladins from Atlas? We _have _to stop these criminals."

"Back off! She's barely untied and now _you're_ interrogating her!" Yang snapped at Weiss.

Weiss ignored the increasingly furious blonde and pressed on. "Well what about the men who did this to you? We have to focus on the mission. There were at least a hundred soldiers out there, and they looked like they were planning something big. If this is another attack on my family, that blood is on our hands. _My _hands."

"Perry… That's what they called him."

"Who?" Blake asked gently.

"The one who… did… did… _this_… to me…"

A klaxon sounded before a heavily accented voice came over the PA system, "Alright, everybody, get on the train! We're moving out!"

Oobleck muttered to himself, lost in thought. "Train? That track has been sealed off for years."

"Wait, Dr. Oobleck, where was the end of the line?"

"Why do you ask, Blake?" Oobleck's brown eyes lit up behind his glasses. "Of course! You're absolutely right!" Oobleck turned to the girls, "They must be trying to breach the city!"

"Then we have to stop it! We can't let these-" Weiss gave Blake a sideways glance before continuing, "-Criminals use Schnee hardware! There is no telling how much damage they could do, and they can_ not _be used to further sully my family's name!"

"It's not about your family's name, we need to take them out or they'll destroy the city." Blake tensed, poised to jump down Weiss's throat if she continued her self important act, but Oobleck quickly jumped in between them, derailing the argument before it could even start.

"Girls, now is not the time for this! You're both correct, we must find a way to stop the train before it reaches the city."

Yang was the first to respond, and voiced her concern for her sister, "But Professor, what about Ruby? She can't fight like this."

"Yes I can."

Everyone turned to Ruby, surprised at the interjection. "Who has Crescent Rose?"

A somewhat incredulous Blake produced the scythe from off her hip. "Are you _sure_ that you want to fight?"

"I have to, or else innocent people are going to be hurt." The young huntress-in-training accepted her weapon, not giving a thought to the damage it might have sustained while Blake fought with it on her hip. Ruby mechanically clipped it to her belt before turning back to the group.

Oobleck shouldered his pack. "Very well then. Let's go stop that train."

As the group exited the building, Yang hung back near Ruby, making sure to keep an eye on her as they ran through the now empty cavern towards the train. The engine lurched forward, but everyone managed to find a handhold on the side before they climbed to the top to regroup.

"Alright, children, we must get to the front and stop this train."

"Doctor Oobleck, I think we need to go. Now." Weiss was standing by the open hatch to the top of the car. Yang and the rest of the group ran over to her, curious at her discovery. A bomb on top of a train car full of dust was what greeted them.

"Right, on we go!" Oobleck led the rest of the team to the next car as the bomb started beeping urgently. "Blake! Detach the caboose!"

"Right!" Blake hopped down to disconnect the two cars.

Yang watched on as the train car drifted away from their own. _Blake must have been quick_, she thought.

"It decoupled itself!" A shout from below told Yang that she was wrong.

"I guess he _really _doesn't want us on this train," Yang replied as she helped her partner back up to the top of the car.

Yang looked up from helping her partner in time to see the now detached car explode. The resulting blast sent the train car to the ceiling of the tunnel and smashed a hole as wide as a Nevermore's wingspan. Before anyone could make another comment, an ominous beeping rang out from the hatch of the car they were currently standing on.

"Another bomb?!" Blake's response said it all. The group sprinted for the next car, barely making the jump as their car detached, which then drifted down the tracks and detonated like the first.

Yang looked back to see Grimm beginning to pour out of the openings in the tunnel. Beowolves, Death Stalkers, and Ursai were a few of the many species of Grimm that began to flood the tunnel, so much so that they spilled over each other as they pursued the train, intent on another meal. They crawled over the rubble and roared, howled, and gnashed their teeth, their blood lust spurring them onward.

Oobleck had yelled something about Grimm, but Yang was too busy watching her sister to even care. Ruby, though alert, didn't have the usual twinkle in her eyes. She stood holding Crescent Rose in its rifle form, which would undoubtedly have made her the most confident of all of them any other day, but now she looked… hollow_. _A hot feeling boiled up inside of Yang, and her eyes flared red with anger at the thought of the monster who did this to her sister. Her vengeful thoughts were interrupted when everyone started to move. She snapped out of her reverie and followed the group.

Oobleck raced to the hatch on their new car. "It's empty! Alright, we need to find some way to stop this train. You three," he nodded in the direction of Weiss, Blake, and Yang, "Go through the cars and try to find a way to stop the engine from there. Ruby and I will fight our way on the top and try to do the same." Weiss and Blake nodded quickly before they turned to drop into the car, but Oobleck stopped them with one final warning. "Remember girls. You are strongest as a team. You _must _fight together, or you will surely fail." All the girls exchanged a somber nod before Weiss and Blake lowered themselves into the vacant train car. Yang, however, hesitated.

"Professor, I want to stick with Ru-"

"Don't worry, Yang," Oobleck smiled reassuringly. "I will make sure she is safe. Now go!" He turned and sped towards the front of the train, Ruby close behind him.

Yang reluctantly watched as she and her sister were separated once again. _I promise you, after all this is over, I will never leave your side, _Yang swore silently as she turned to follow her teammates into the car. She dropped in as Blake was putting a clip into Gambol Shroud.

After a silent look between the three of them, they turned and began sprinting through the train cars. One, two, three, all empty. No such luck on the fourth as they burst into the next car to find a group of White Fang exiting from the opposite door, while the one that remained barked orders at them. "-don't care! You heard Torchwick, grab a Paladin and kill them!"

A voice squawked over the radio, "PERRY! GET THEM OFF MY TRAIN!"

"Understood, boss, we'll take care of it," Perry spoke into the radio, a slight edge in his voice. "Why are we taking orders from a Human?" he muttered as he turned around to face the new arrivals. "Well now, what do we have here? Three more playthings, hmm?" he removed his weapon from his belt and snapped it. He wielded a whip, with small blades along its length.

The mention of his name over the radio and the whip gave Yang no doubts. "You two go on ahead. This one's _mine._" Blake gave her partner an unsure look, but Weiss took off without a question, and Blake could only follow.

Perry snapped his whip sideways, cutting the room in half. Blake easily dove under the line, leaving her shadow as she rolled out and past the White Fang torturer. Weiss handled the attack just as easily, casting a glyph on the tip to hold it in place as she sprinted past, then hurried into the next car with Blake.

The door slid shut behind them, and Yang was upon him. A swift right hook to the chin, then a bone-crunching left uppercut to the ribs sent Perry stumbling back. He weakly snapped his whip up towards his attacker. Yang put up her left arm and let the whip wrap around it, the sharp blades on the length anchoring it in place.

"Yeah?! Is that all you got?!" Her eyes were blood red, the pain only fueling her lust for revenge.

Perry's eyes widened beneath his mask as she ripped the weapon from his grasp before she leapt at him again. She slammed her fist on top of his skull, cracking his mask with a blast from Ember Celica. His knees buckled, but she stayed on top of him, keeping her knee firmly in his chest when he collapsed to the ground.

One blow to the head. His aura was gone. She slammed her fist into his head. Another. He went limp. She felt something give as she delivered the next strike. Red tinted her vision, but she kept slamming her fist into what was left of his skull. With each blow she felt the beast inside her roar with satisfaction. _This is what he deserves, _it said.

Finally, Yang stopped, exhausted, with no more ammo left in Ember Celica. She looked down at what she had done.

Blood was everywhere. The train car was painted with it, as was Yang herself. It had soaked through her jacket and boots. Her vision was red, and when she saw her reflection in the pool of blood, her face was more sanguine than pale white.

_This is what he deserved, _the voice said. _He hurt Ruby. He deserved to die. _

Yang stood shakily, stunned by what she had done. _This is what he deserved, _she told herself. She took one step and slipped on the slick blood. She reached out to the wall to steady herself, and her hand came away red and left messy streaks on the wall. The thought of what she had done began to overwhelm her, and she sunk to the ground, and began to bawl.

_I… I killed him, _Yang's sobs wracked her body and she squeezed her knees to her chest. _I can't be this person. _

_He hurt Ruby. This is justice. _The voice was loud and strong, easily drowning out every gasp for air as tears flowed freely from her eyes. Yang latched on to the voice, desperate for some justification.

After a minute of rocking back and forth on the car's floor, Yang rubbed the tears from her eyes before she stood. She tore the whip from her arm. It had been in long enough to deplete her aura, but not long enough to scar her like Ruby would be. She wiped the blood off of herself as best she could, but the red still tinted her vision, no matter how hard she tried to calm down. A quick reload of Ember Celica, then she started toward the next car, intent on finding Ruby.

The steel door slid open, and Yang immediately jumped into action. A White Fang soldier that was twice her size and wielding a chainsaw as tall as her had slammed Weiss into the ground before he threw her into the air. The mountain of a man swung the blade toward her torso as she fell, a crushing blow imminent for the heiress.

The blow sent her flying into the door to the next car, and she crumpled while Yang moved to take on her attacker. Before she could reach him, he had swung the saw blade back around, slashing straight down toward her. She side stepped to her right, and came back around with a right hook to his abdomen. The blow from her gauntlet knocked him back into the train car's wall, disturbing the boxes around him. As he moved to stand up, several fell on top of him, hindering his progress, which gave Yang enough time to pull Weiss to her feet and move on to the next car.

Blake was standing over Torchwick, Gambol Shroud poised to strike. On hearing her two teammates enter, she quickly sheathed her weapon and delivered a crippling kick to the side of the man's head, knocking him unconscious and sending his hat flying.

"Yang! What happened?! You're –" Blake's eyes were wide, and locked on Yang's blood stained appearance.

"No time to explain, we have to go _now_!" Yang said while half dragging, half carrying Weiss, who was steadily regaining her aura and her bearings. _He deserved it, _she wanted to say. _He hurt Ruby. There was only one way it could end._

Weiss shook off Yang's help as they made it into the next car. "You two get on top of the train, I'll seal the door off with a glyph." Yang used a blast from Ember Celica to force the hatch open, then another blast to accentuate her jump, and clambered up to the top of the car. Blake leapt up behind her, landing silently on her feet, followed shortly by Weiss.

Yang turned to see Ruby running toward them, away from Oobleck and several Paladins. The sealed entrance of the tunnel was approaching rapidly, and they didn't have time to move up any more cars.

"What do we do?" Blake's voice cut through Yang's relief at seeing her sister, and focused her back on the pressing situation.

Weiss took charge immediately, slamming Myrtenaster into the roof of the car, and enveloping all four of team RWBY in ice.

The train smashed into the iron gate, and the team's temporary shelter was shattered. Each member was thrown hard into the rubble at the new opening. Yang's vision was blurry and swam with black dots as she struggled to maintain consciousness. The black dots swarmed, and she faded.


	2. The End

**Author's Note:** Due to a mistake, I accidentally uploaded an old version of Chapter 1. The chapter was replaced after I realized what happened, but I fear many people read it before I could correct it. I strongly urge you to go back and reread it, as there were several mistakes in that version, as well as a few important details you may have missed, including some parts being rewritten entirely. I thank you for your patience, and promise that this is the correct version of this chapter.

* * *

Engines roared as the Bullhead began to lift off the ground, the thrust propelling the aircraft up into the air. The floor shook beneath Jaune's feet, making his heart pound as they ascended off the launch pad.

_Ok, you're ok. _Jaune's breathing began to turn ragged as his stomach turned. _Just a little trip. Don't get sick. Don't get sick. _He turned his eyes from the open side of the aircraft to his team.

Nora was bouncing on her toes, or maybe the shaking of the hull was doing that. Probably both. Ren stood silently next to her, lost in thought. They were originally supposed to go to the village where he and Nora grew up, but as soon as the ear-piercing alarms sounded, Jaune changed their mission, and directed the pilot toward the city. The inky black smoke billowed up shortly afterwards.

Jaune turned his attention to Pyrrha. _How did I get so lucky? _he thought as his gaze wandered from her brilliant green eyes to her exposed shoulders, strong, yet soft. After the dance, they had begun spending a lot more time together, and more intimately. Their late night training sessions had been replaced on occasion with quiet nights staring off into the distance, where Pyrrha often held tight onto his arm as she rested her head on him.

The nights they actually spent training had forged his body into something new entirely. His armor fit tighter as he bulked up, and his once cumbersome shield had begun to feel light as a feather. He had become a decent fighter, and had improved rapidly under Pyrrha's tutelage. He was now finally able to hold his own in the duels that took place in class, and all of JNPR had begun to finish higher in team competitions under his newfound confidence.

The bullhead banked sharply, preparing to drop off the team. Jaune poked his head out of the airship's door and was immediately buffeted by fierce winds and a dire sight.

Grimm swarmed the streets. They seemed to surge away from a large pile of rubble producing the smoke and down the main street. There were a few pockets of light in the sea of darkness, which the civilians seemed to be headed toward. Those that could make it away from the Grimm, that is.

Jaune steeled himself for the battle that was about to come. "Alright," he yelled as he turned back to his team, "We're going to land by the smoke, then follow the main street until we can get to those spots."

Pyrrha leaned to get a better view of the city below them. "They might be evacuation zones. If we can make it to the first one, we can hold the Grimm off while other teams-"

"Time to go!" A shout from the cockpit alerted everyone to prepare for a quick drop.

"Here we go!" Nora sang as she leapt from the Bullhead, Magnhild already in hammer form by the time she was out the door. Pyrrha and Ren were next, gracefully falling through the air, their landing strategies muscle memory after countless hours of practice. Jaune had significantly less training in landing a jump from 50 feet in the air. He inhaled deeply, then dropped.

Jaune hurtled to the ground, briefly panicking as the hard stone ground approached rapidly, but regained his composure and twisted to land on his feet, absorbing the impact as he quickly gained his bearings on the situation at hand.

This was the end. The city was being torn apart by Grimm, both its people, and the buildings themselves. Giant Nevermores flew overhead, attacking the Bullheads that were flying in to evacuate civilians and to drop off teams like JNPR. Deathstalkers smashed the front of homes with their stingers, trapping the inhabitants inside. Beowolves chased men and women down side streets, and Ursai ripped cars apart to get to anyone unfortunate enough to be stuck in one when the Grimm appeared.

"Let's move!" Pyrrha shouted as soon as Jaune landed. With a short sigh, he sprang into action.

Immediately they were in the thick of the battle. Jaune and Pyrrha cleared a hole, staying side by side and using their shields to barrel down the main road. Ren leapt out to slash any Grimm that turned to face the team while Nora stayed behind the two shield bearers, continuously firing grenades from Magnhild at pockets of Grimm while she kept pace.

They broke into the first pocket to find a familiar blonde haired brawler. Yang was fending off Grimm, her back to a door of a tall, sturdy looking house. Jaune got a glance inside, and his heart wrenched instinctively at the sight.

Men, women, and children were inside, a few intact, many missing limbs, but all of them moved about in a daze as they coped with the things they had seen.

Jaune quickly pushed the image from his mind as JNPR moved to reinforce Yang. As his team formed a wide ring around the young huntress, he stood beside her for an on the fly briefing. "Yang! Where's the rest of your team?!"

"We split up to save as many people as possible. We're using buildings like this as field hospitals and the roofs as evac sites," she panted, sweat dripping from her brow.

Yang must have been helping the wounded, as she had more blood on her than anyone Jaune had seen. Her eyes were red; unsurprising as she was likely using her semblance for the whole fight. After a quick scan of the Grimm there, he made a decision.

"Alright, team, listen up!" he positioned himself between Nora and Pyrrha as he took his position in the standoff between the circling Grimm and the hospital. "Ren, you're going to stay here with Yang and defend this evac site. The rest of us will fight our way to the next site. Once we get there, one person will stay behind as the other two move on. Got it?"

After getting affirmative responses from his team and Yang, Jaune began his countdown. "Alright, we're going on 3. One…" Nora changed Magnhild to its hammer form, "Two…" Yang chambered a shell into Ember Celica, "THREE!" Jaune, Nora, and Pyrrha shot toward the wall of Grimm.

Nora soared over his head and brought her hammer down on top of a King Taijitu. The impact of the blow cracked the bone plate on top of the serpent's head. The shards pierced the scales and felled the beast immediately. Jaune and Pyrrha leapt on top of the half dead snake and raced toward the other head, which was now writhing in pain. The trio sped along the back of the Grimm toward the next clearing, ignoring the throng of beasts beneath them.

The next opening approached rapidly. Jaune noticed that Pyrrha was lagging behind, not able to keep up with the other two for long distances while encumbered by her armor. "Pyrrha, stay at this one, Nora and I will keep moving!"

The second head of the King Taijitu reared back in front of them, as if it was preparing to strike someone below, but the attack never came. A certain Faunus dressed in black appeared above it, and slashed its eyes before burying her weapon into the soft spot behind the snake's bone skull. Blake leapt from the dying Grimm's head and disappeared back into the clearing.

The new arrivals launched themselves after Blake into the clearing. Jaune tucked his head and rolled while Nora simply shot off the ground and toward their next destination. A quick glance behind him saw Pyrrha and Blake standing back to back, prepared to take on any Grimm that dared to come near them.

The amount of Grimm in front of them had thinned out considerably compared to the amount that had blocked them on their way to Yang and Blake's locations, but there was still more than Jaune felt comfortable fighting with only two people. _Well, it's worked before… _

"Nora! Heads up!" Jaune said as he slid to a stop mere feet from the wall of Grimm. He set his shield above his head and braced for the impact.

A moment later, he felt Nora land on top of his shield, and the click of the grenade about to detonate from Magnhild told him when to spring upward to further boost her launch.

The force from the blast sent Nora soaring above them, and Jaune watched as she began to rain down grenades as she fell back to the ground. The explosives made a wide hole for him, and he quickly sprinted through the new opening, shrugging off any Grimm that strayed into his path.

Nora came hurtling to the ground in front of Jaune, and brought her hammer full force onto an Ursa's back. The Ursa crumpled and the short huntress-in-training bounced off its now lifeless body to follow him.

The pair burst through the line of Grimm to find Weiss easily fending off any overly aggressive monsters. Nora skidded to a stop next to the heiress, her weapon at the ready. Weiss immediately complained, despite the situation. "You're leaving me with _her_?!"

Any more dialogue between the two was lost as Jaune looked ahead at his path to see very few Grimm separating him from what had to be Ruby's clearing. _Well then that's a good sign. Maybe this will be easy. _Jaune's thoughts didn't keep him from focusing on the beasts in front of him, and he proceeded to bull down the street, determined to get to Ruby.

As he neared his destination, the amount of Grimm seemed to increase, and their resistance to Jaune became stauncher. Jaune struggled through the mass of beasts, slashing out only when he needed to as he approached a solid wall of black. One final push forward, and Jaune broke into the clearing.

Ruby was backed up almost completely to the doors of the building she was defending. She was surrounded by Grimm, her weapon only in its rifle form, and Jaune could see the panic in her eyes. _Why isn't she fighting with her scythe? _

Quickly, he jumped into the battle. He thrust his sword into a Beowolf, then as he ripped it out, he brought his shield down on top of a Creep's skull, smashing the two-legged Grimm's spine with the force of the impact.

As he continued fighting his way to Ruby, he caught glances of his friend.

The midsection of her outfit was missing, replaced by deep cuts on her exposed flesh, the blood from them already dried. She was bloody and bruised, but that wasn't it. She seemed defeated.

Jaune shrugged off another Beowolf's attack with his shield before he turned to intercept an Ursa Major that was charging Ruby. The beast rampaged toward the young girl, but Jaune was too slow to slow it down, and it barreled past him.

"NO!" Jaune cried out, trying desperately to stop the charge with only his voice and willpower.

And it worked.

The Ursa slammed into a translucent yellow wall and was immediately incapacitated. Jaune, astonished at his own newfound power, quickly sprinted to his companion, following in the wake of the downed beast.

Ruby answered his question before he could even get a word out, "Jaune! Crescent Rose is broken! I need you to cover me while I fix her!"

"Right!" Jaune replied, turning to face the sea of Grimm that faced him. _Now, how do I make that fancy shield again? _he thought as he heard Ruby fervently working on her weapon behind him.

An odd warmth accompanied by a high pitched whine began beneath his feet. Jaune looked down to see what was the cause of the noise, only to be greeted with a hot orange glow instead of the cool gray concrete like the rest of the city. His eyes quickly shot to his companion.

Ruby was still furiously repairing Crescent Rose, oblivious to anything that was not made up of metal and dust.

In that split second, Jaune made his decision. He focused all of his remaining Aura into another semblance wall to protect Ruby, and braced himself for the explosion about to come.

The ground erupted and sent Jaune 30 feet in the air. His descent was nearly as pretty as his fall from the Bullhead. He twisted to right himself in midair, but his moment of anxiety returned, freezing him. The split second he lost was enough to cost him an effective landing and he slammed into the concrete.

_Hard. _

Jaune had landed face down, and the sudden and awkward impact cracked several ribs as well as undoubtedly fracturing his left arm that he foolishly tried to use to stop his fall.

_Not as bad as it could have been, _he thought with a grimace. But it wasn't over yet.

Debris from the mysterious explosion began to rain down on him. A solid piece of concrete the size of a car crushed a nearby Deathstalker. Another chunk speared a nearby Beowolf and pinned another beneath it. A chunk as large as a Boarbatusk landed next to his head, splitting itself in two halves with one falling away, but the other slammed into the back of his head before rolling to the side.

Stars filled his vision, and he faintly remembered screaming. He tried to stir, connecting with all of his body as he tried to assess any permanent damage. _That's strange, _he thought as he tried to test his left arm, _I don't think it's pinned. _Jaune slowly opened his eyes.

His arm laid a foot from where he was currently, a large piece of metal in between him and his arm.

He was being rolled over now. He could barely keep his eyes open now. Ruby held him tightly, sobbing into his hair. She seemed to be trying to tell him something…

"...So sorry. Please don't leave me. It's my fault. Please don't die…" Her tears dripped from her nose and landed onto his cheek as she held his head in her lap.

_I wonder what she's talking about… _He drifted on the edge of consciousness, picking up bits and pieces of what she said. _Where did that explosion come from? _he wondered to himself, still confused why Ruby was crying.

He strained to open his eyes once more.

There weren't any Grimm around, but only large mountains of metal and debris along the street. His gaze wandered to the main street again, which was still covered by a gloomy gray sky and countless Grimm much further away from them.

Then a light came.

It grew from a bright spot in the distance to covering the sky in less than a second. There was a ringing in his ears, and Jaune could feel the shock wave shake his bones, despite his state.

Slowly, the light faded. Not the light itself, but through Jaune's eyes. His sapphire eyes began to dull, and his breathing grew shallower and shallower as he fell deeper and deeper into his final sleep. _Maybe a little sleep right now wouldn't hurt. _

But Ruby was trying to tell him something. He strained to make out what words she was saying.

"...My life… You can't die, Jaune, you can't… It's all my fault…" As her words became more and more tear-choked, he allowed himself to shut his eyes, intent on hearing all that she wanted to tell him when he woke up.

Jaune would not wake up.


	3. The Brothers

"Alright, shitheads. How much are we betting this time?" Sun shouted over the Bullhead's engines as his team flew to downtown Vale.

"I wouldn't want to take all your money while we're away from home, mate!" Sage called back from the other side of the airship.

Neptune and Scarlet watched as their partners yelled at each other from across the airship. Sun tried to justify that since he was the team leader, he was obviously the most skilled, and therefore would be the one to win said bet. A quick retelling of the results of their last few bets shut him up quickly, and Sage stood victorious for the next minute of the flight.

Neptune decided Sun had done enough of his pre-fight ritual, and gave his partner a nudge. "So what's the plan?"

The Faunus's self-assured smile returned, and he addressed his team once more. "Same as always dickheads! Me and Neptune go right, Scarlet and Sage, you two go left. We'll meet up once we've cleared a block each. Our meet up is the square where the smoke is coming from." Sun reached to his pocket, his fingers searching for something that wasn't there. _Huh, I swore I brought my scroll with me…_

"Alright lads! This is our stop!" Sage's long jacket whipped about his legs as he leaned out of the side of the Bullhead to get a better view of his drop. "Remember, last one to the meetup buys the first round! Hope you blokes are ready!" And with that, Scarlet leapt out without a word, followed quickly by Sage, who yelled like a madman all the way down.

"You fucks are going to be paying for our drinks!" Sun called after his teammates before he turned to Neptune, "Hey, do you have your scroll with you? I think I left mine at Beacon."

"Yeah, why do you want it?"

"Just to keep an eye on them. You know how reckless they get with their aura."

"Right, right." Neptune fished in his front pocket for a second before he managed to locate it. Just as he produced the device from his pocket, the Bullhead banked suddenly, and sent both young huntsman tumbling from the airship.

Sun easily twisted and landed on his feet without incident, but just by the sheer amount of noise that Neptune had made on his descent, Sun could tell his descent wasn't as graceful.

"Hey! You alright there, Nep?!" Sun called out as he turned to run toward his partner's location.

A pained groan was all that he got as a response.

_Oh shit, don't you fucking dare be injured, _Sun's mind immediately jumped to the worst possible scenario. Images of Neptune bloodied and surrounded by Grimm fought their way into his head. He quickened his pace.

As he rounded the corner, he found his friend alone, climbing out of an open dumpster. The usually fashionable Neptune was covered in garbage, his red jacket stained with whatever the people of Vale deemed trash.

Sun burst out laughing at the sight, relief washing over him like a wave. "Dude, you look like shit!"

"Yeah, well not everyone was born in a circus," the blue haired huntsman in training shot back, peeved as all his hard work to look good went down the drain.

"Hey, just cause I climb a lot doesn't mean my parents were acrobats. Besides, I grew up with you three! Dad tried to teach you how to climb, but what did you used to say? 'Noooo, I'll get sweaty!' Like seriously, I thought you were gay for a while."

Neptune glared at the monkey tailed Faunus.

"Not that there's anything wrong with that!" Sun provided hastily, sincere in his response.

Neptune opened his mouth to retort, but as he did so, a pack of Beowolves rounded the corner, howling at the sight of fresh meat. Sun immediately snapped Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang out from his waistband readying his staff towards the approaching Grimm.

"Alright, I'll take the two on the right, you take the two on the left."

Neptune leveled his trident at the approaching Grimm, his feet firmly planted by his brother, teammate, and best friend.

Sun felt him tense.

They sprang forward, Neptune easily slicing through one Beowolf with his weapon in glaive form, then twisting his body and impaling the other with his trident.

Sun kicked one of his two Grimm to the side and swept the other's legs with a low strike from his staff before finishing it off with a crushing blow to the head, killing the Grimm instantly.

As he turned to face his next opponent, he was greeted by the sight of Neptune standing over the Beowolf, his trident embedded in its chest.

"What the hell, man?! He was mine!"

Neptune shrugged. "Trident form, bro."

"That's bullshit and you know it. That was totally my kill and you stole it."

"I mean, it _looks _like this is my weapon stuck in his chest, but unless you want to swap for the rest of the day, I'm going to chalk this one as 3 to 1 for me."

Sun glowered at his partner for a moment before returning to the task at hand. "Fuck it. You still have your scroll? We need to keep an eye on those two idiots."

"No, I lost it when **I almost died falling out of the Bullhead**."

"Hey. Don't be such a fucking downer. That shit was awesome and you know it."

His companion let out an exasperated sigh, but smiled in agreement.

"Alright, it looks like we're right about where we needed to be dropped off at, so let's clear these alleys and try to beat those two losers to the square."

The pair started down the alley where the Beowolves had come from, concerned less with the danger of Grimm, but more with the thought of the embarrassment of losing _another_ bet to Scarlet and Sage.

As they raced through the alleys, quickly dispatching any Grimm along the way without a problem. Ursai, Beowolves, and Creeps were the only things that could fit in through the tight entrances and they were easily snuffed out by the two fighters. The mission had proceeded smoothly so far, but still, Sun had a nagging feeling that something was wrong.

He and Neptune finished securing their block without incident, but as they made their way toward the square, Sun's stomach dropped. "Hey, slow down. I've got a bad feeling about this." Neptune slowed to a steady pace, walking with his weapon at the ready in rifle form, scanning rooftops and checking behind them as Sun covered their sides and in front of them.

An eerie silence hung over the square, but there were no Grimm to oppose them as they moved toward the source of the billowing smoke. An ominous clicking came from the hole created by the train, and a golden light began to radiate from within.

"Uh, Sun?"

"I see it," he said as he gritted his teeth and braced for whatever was about to come out of the tunnel.

The golden light shot out at Sun's chest with enough force to tear apart a building.

Instinctively, he leapt above it, turning mid-air to get a look at what it was.

A huge golden stinger connected to a long, bony tail was extended beneath him, already a cars length past where he was standing just a split-second ago. Huge claws emerged from the breach, followed shortly by the rest of the Deathstalker.

Sun's leap had bought him a few precious moments in the air, which he used to quickly scan for weak points in the giant scorpion's armor. The entire top of the beast was armored in bone plate, but the underbelly was solely a comparatively soft-looking chitin, as well as the 8 unarmored legs of the Grimm.

Sun raised his staff above his head as he hurtled back to the ground, which was now occupied by the creature. As he was almost on top of the tail, he brought his staff down with all of the force he could muster into one strike behind the stinger.

The Deathstalker's tail snapped back to crush Sun, but the damage was done. The usually lightning fast stinger was now a more manageable speed, and he easily hopped out of harm's way.

Neptune had just stood up, undoubtedly knocked aside by one of the pincers as the Grimm had emerged from the breach. Neptune saw the weakened Grimm's state and immediately began firing at the monster's eyes, peppering the beast with energy blasts from his weapon.

The Deathstalker immediately began to retreat back into the hole while it shielded its eyes from the abuse of Neptune's powerful rifle shots with its claws.

"Oh no you don't you sonuvabitch!" Sun sprang after the Grimm, intent to finish the job.

The Deathstalker swung out with its right claw, intent on snapping the monkey boy in half, but Sun was prepared. He wedged his staff in between the claw, leaving it there to push off of as he sprang backwards.

As soon as his feet hit the ground he shot back toward the beast. It had begun to try to snap the staff, and squeezed down to break it in two. _Perfect, _Sun thought.

His leap carried him directly towards his staff, and he snatched it from the beasts grasp, splitting it into the dual gun-chucks as he continued toward the scorpion's eyes. He snapped the gun-chucks as many times as he could midair, each snap sending a barrage of fire at the Deathstalker's eyes, causing it to rear back in agony. Sun easily bounded off the top of the Grimm to head to safety while Neptune made his strike.

After seeing his partner blind the Grimm, Neptune immediately sprinted head on toward the beast. A desperate strike from the Grimm's stinger was easily avoided by a quick roll forward, and a slice up with his glaive severed the tail from the golden point.

Sun had returned to the fray, his weapon back in staff form as he whacked the rear legs of the scorpion, pestering it until it exposed some weakness that his partner could exploit.

The Deathstalker reared back to sting, but the sudden weight loss of the stinger opened up its underside more than usual, and Neptune dove for it.

He slid underneath the snapping pincers and regained his feet in time to strike a blow with his trident to the exposed chitin.

The Deathstalker writhed in pain, but Neptune held on, twisting as much as he could. Sun had leapt on its back and began unloading shell after shell on to the Grimm's head, trying to force it down and into Neptune's spear.

Finally, after what felt like an hour, the scorpion gave way, crumpling to the ground, almost squashing Neptune as he was dislodging his weapon.

Sun finally had a chance to look around the tunnel that the Deathstalker had been guarding.

The only light came from the hole that the train that had created when it had smashed into the square. The train cars had been pushed aside by Grimm as they had poured out and into the city, intent on feeding on the fear that had stricken the populace.

Sun strained his eyes in the darkness. He made out the shapes of the cars, the walls, and a large mound of… something.

The light from outside intensified, followed shortly after by the ground shaking beneath their feet.

"Was that... an explosion?" Neptune had turned to the tunnel entrance, his curiosity drawing him toward whatever just happened.

"Hey," he tapped Neptune lightly. Neptune shook his head, and they moved toward the mound together.

Still unable to make out what made up the heap he approached, now only a few feet away.

Neptune made a sickly noise, and turned to puke.

_What did he see?_

His eyes had finally adjusted to the dark, and his gaze traveled back to the pile.

Bodies.

But he could not tear his eyes away.

His brothers were among them.


	4. The Light

"How many are there?" Fox's calm voice cut through the roaring of the Grimm that had surrounded him and his partner.

"More than enough for both of us," Coco replied as she stood back to back with her partner, a lit cigarette burning between her lips. The ember of the tip was a microcosm of the fires that raged across the city as Grimm ran rampant, leaving nothing but destruction in their wake. Slowly she removed the cigarette from her mouth, exhaling smoke as she let the butt of the cigarette drop to the ground. She ground it out with her heel, and readied herself for the oncoming attack.

Despite returning from their own extended mission only a few days prior, Coco had led her team to aid the first years in defending the Vale from the Grimm. The fatigue was evident in how everyone moved, yet they had no choice but to split up to draw the beasts away from the younger teams. Fox wouldn't say it, but Coco could tell he was exhausted already. She admired her partner's heart, but all it would mean here was a few more minutes before the Grimm eventually overwhelmed them.

Tears welled up in her eyes behind her sunglasses and memories flooded her thoughts as she remembered their time together.

...

They had met before coming to Beacon. She had been out shopping with her mother in the months before her first year at the academy without a care in the world when all of the sudden a dark skinned boy collided with her out of nowhere.

"Watch where you're going!" she had yelled.

The boy had looked in her direction only then, absentmindedly offering her a hand up after he regained his feet. He was thin for his frame, yet he was still ruggedly handsome. His hair was a dark orange, similar to his shirt, but not quite. His eyes were obscured by dark sunglasses, and he wore long dark pants and boots. He wasn't dressed particularly well, but the way he carried himself made all the difference. After her quick assessment of him, she decided to take him up on his offer.

She grasped his hand, only to be yanked up with such force that she stumbled and fell into his arms, sending the stranger backwards with her on top of him.

She had landed on top of him, her arms on either side of his head as she braced herself from the fall, but there was no need. He had held her hips with his hands, making sure she didn't hurt herself. His hands were large, strong, and rough from years of physical labor. Their pressure on her hips made her face flush. She longed for him to hold her, and to touch her body in more places, but he had said something.

"…Off."

Coco blinked. "What?"

"Can you please get off?" His voice cut through her trance, and she scrambled to her feet, brushing herself off immediately. It was a new jacket after all.

He coiled his legs up to his chest and sprang up to his feet in one fluid motion. His movements were silky smooth, and the way he carried himself gave out a quiet confidence, despite his somewhat underwhelming attire.

"Coco? Tout va bien?" Her mother had called out to her, only noticing she had disappeared once she had reached a new store.

"Oui Mama!" Coco turned back to the young man in front of her. "Are you alright?"

"Just a little turned around is all," he said with a small smile. He still hadn't looked her in the eye.

"What do you need?"

"Which way to the café?"

"Ah! It's a block that way," she had gestured back toward the direction she had come from, trying as hard as possible to still look dignified while her face was three shades darker red than it was supposed to be.

He simply smiled wider at her antics. "What is your name, beautiful?"

Coco's cheeks turned an impossible shade crimson at the compliment. "Coco. May I ask yours?"

"Fox."

...

Bullet casings rained down from Coco's minigun as she directed the unending stream of dust rounds at the mass of Grimm before her.

"Fox! On your right!"

Fox turned immediately to face a charging Boarbatusk, stopping it dead in its tracks with an overhand punch.

It was not enough though. As soon as they killed one Grimm, two others replaced it, and they would soon be overwhelmed.

"We've got to pull back! There's too many!"

...

This was what she had been waiting for: Initiation day. Professor Ozpin was giving some speech about landing strategies, but Coco was only half listening. She strained to see over a small rabbit Faunus next to her that couldn't stop shaking.

"Hey."

The Faunus girl looked up at Coco, her eyes wide.

"Relax. Tout ira bien."

A confused look crossed over the girl's face.

"It means everything is going to be ok." Coco paired the reassuring saying with a warm smile, trying to comfort the nervous young Faunus.

The girl cracked a grin, but quickly covered it as she abashedly pulled her ears over her face. She had flushed scarlet and turned away from Coco, stealing glances toward her whenever she thought the taller girl wasn't looking.

Coco used the opportunity to peer over her, eagerly searching for Fox amongst the other new students. She had brought several friends to Beacon, and had made several more in her brief time there, but when it came time to partner up, there was only one person that she could ever want to be with.

Someone who made her stomach flutter every time he spoke her name. Someone whose touch sent her to a world of bliss. She had never known anyone like him, and her heart called to her to find him before anyone else could claim him.

Finally she spotted him. He was standing midway down the line on his launch pad, wearing his same old rusty shirt and dark pants. _After all the shopping we did, and that's what you wear on your first big day without me?_ Coco smiled to herself.

He still wore his dark sunglasses almost all of the time, but she had managed to steal them away from him whenever he was in the changing room while they went shopping. And he was fine with it. She could keep a secret.

The platforms began to launch students toward the forest. Fox was sent flying well before her, but she would not be defeated so easily. Moments later her pad launched her after him, and she quickly adjusted her angle to sail towards him, her light frame allowing her to speed after him.

She hurtled through the air, homing in on her target. Fox had no idea she was there when she caught up with him midair and there was no way he could hear her over the wind, yet she had to get his attention somehow.

As the distance to the tree line shrank away, Coco made a decision. Gliding toward his head, she reached over him and plucked his sunglasses from his face. Fox was already twisting, trying to sense who took his shades, but they were amongst the trees in a moment, and she lost sight of him on the way down to the forest's floor.

She landed gracefully on her feet, keeping her composure as always. She brushed off the stray leaf that landed on her shoulder and took out Fox's glasses to examine them.

A pair of dark lenses connected by a black wire frame made for a very stylish look that could go with anything. She rubbed the smudges off the lens and slid them on, smiling at her new appearance. A stick cracked underfoot and she turned to face Fox, looking him square in his sightless eyes.

"Thanks for the glasses, partner."

...

"FOX!" Coco cried out as the Beowolves began to swarm him from all sides. She turned her weapon from the swarm of Grimm in front of her to the pack around her partner.

The rounds torn the Grimm to pieces, but Fox had managed to escape the same brutal fate, ducking under the stream of dust rounds before picking himself back up and sprinting toward Coco.

"We need to keep moving!" His normally calm and stoic voice had an edge that she had never heard before, an edge honed by the will to live.

He was not going down without a fight, and neither was she.

...

"Shhh! Velvet and Yatsu are sleeping!"

"None of your second year friends were willing to loan us their room, huh?" Fox whispered quietly into Coco's ear.

"No, they know us! Everyone would know what we'd be doing!" Coco had snuck into Fox's bed. He had been a perfect gentleman that night, and she was finally ready. They had danced together all night, and Fox even had an encouraging pat on the back from Professor Port as they left the ballroom together.

Coco was only in her thin nightgown, while Fox slept nude, as always. Only the thin layer of silk separated them, but it was still too much. She yearned for him to touch her everywhere. A warmth spread throughout her, and every second she spent apart from him drove her mad with desire.

"Are you sure you're ready?" Fox had positioned himself behind her while laying down, his lips barely away from her ear as his warm breath tickled her skin. He rubbed her thigh as he did so, and her heart raced even faster.

"Tout ira bien. I'm ready."

Fox pushed inside her, and Coco felt an explosion of ecstasy in her hips. She craned her neck up and locked lips with him, moaning quietly in pleasure.

They made love through the night, the fire between them unquenchable.

...

Flames raged around them, but that was it. No more Grimm. They had managed to kill all of the beasts that had pursued them, but in doing so they each suffered fatal blows.

They laid facing each other, curled up with their heads pressed together.

"It's not fair," Coco whimpered, pain searing through her body as she struggled to breathe. "We didn't have long enough." Tears cut through the dirt on her face, but she didn't care anymore. These were their last moments together.

"Shhh, it's ok," Fox whispered as he laid a kiss on her forehead. He ran his hand through her hair and caressed her cheek, wiping away the tears from her eyes.

She finally broke. "I'm scared," she cried as she clutched at his chest, desperately trying to pull him closer, not caring anymore if neither of them could move without excruciating pain. She just wanted him to hold her tightly one last time.

Fox obliged, gritting his teeth through the agony of moving and closed the distance between them. He tilted her head towards his and kissed her one last time. When they broke apart, he brought her in close to him, squeezing her to his chest for the final time.

"Please don't leave me. I don't want to be alone," Coco whispered into his chest.

"Tout ira bien. I will never let you go."

They died intertwined in each other's arms as a light in the distance filled the sky.

* * *

"Yatsu, there's too many of them!"

Her silent protector only slid in front of her, shielding her from any Grimm that dare challenge them. He towered over many of the Beowolves, and could see eye to eye with Ursai. He leveled his blade towards those that pursued them, but Velvet tugged his arm.

"We can't fight them! We have to draw them away from the first years!"

Begrudgingly he turned and followed her, running side by side with her down the main street. Even though his stride was twice of her own, the fatigue from their previous mission weighed him down enough for Velvet to keep up with him.

"This way!" Velvet turned suddenly and took off down a smaller street, drawing the Grimm away from the first year's positions along the main street. She heard Yatsuhashi grunt as he followed her. She glanced back to see a Beowolf latched onto his left arm, trying to slow him down enough so more could of the monsters could pile on top of him, but to no avail. He tore his arm free of the beast and sent it tumbling behind him, its body slamming into the Grimm chasing them.

She sprinted further ahead of the pack, picking up speed as she went. As she put more and more distance between them and the first years on the main street, she turned her head to check on Yatsuhashi.

He was lagging behind her, but still managed to stay ahead of the swarm of Grimm hunting them. Just as she was turning back to the road in front of her, something slammed into her hip, sending her sprawling to the ground.

She writhed in pain, unable to move her legs. Screams of agony erupted from her, as any small movement intensified the pain shooting through her body.

Her survival instinct kicked in though, and she began to look around for what had hit her.

A Boarbatusk was down the street, turning to make another run at the helpless Faunus. It began its charge down the street toward her, intent on a killing blow this time.

_Not like this, not this way,_ her thoughts raced as the beast signaled her imminent demise. She began dragging herself out of the path of the Grimm, but to no avail.

In a moment it was upon her, its tusks poised to impale her, and she turned away, unwilling to see her end.

But there was no impact. No tusks protruding from her chest. The Boarbatusk was squealing, stopped dead in its tracks, with a massive copper sword separating the front and rear of the beast.

Yatsuhashi scooped up his companion and slid her onto his back. Velvet wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and held on for dear life, her legs hanging lamely, unable to support her. Yatsuhashi pried his blade free of the fallen Grimm and continued their mission, drawing the Grimm away from the main street.

They had made it almost 10 blocks from where they had split up with Coco and Fox in an attempt to draw the Grimm away from the first year teams on the main street. Beowolves had begun to catch up with the pair as exhaustion set in for Yatsuhashi. Velvet bounced along his back and sobbed quietly from the pain of every small movement.

"Velvet... you... must... use it," Yatsuhashi's voice was strained to get the words out between his ragged breathing. "There's... too many... I can't... keep... running."

"I can't do it with one arm!" Velvet's voice was laced with panic as she responded to the enormous man carrying her.

Yatsuhashi immediately dropped his great sword and swung Velvet around to in front of him, cradling her like a child to free up her hands to prime the box.

"Yatsu! Why-"

"This is... the only way... you can use it... I won't... need it soon... anyways."

Velvet somberly opened her box, careful not to let it drop as Yatsuhashi forged ahead. Small machines churned within, surrounding a perfect sphere of dust. It was a clear ball, no larger than an apple, with each color of naturally occurring dust swirling within, a faint light emanating from the core. The dust inside drifted in beautifully random patterns. The beauty of the sphere betrayed its raw destructive power. The devices whirring around the orb kept the dust stable and the volatility in check until she needed to use it. _Funny that such a little thing would be able to do so much damage,_ she thought as her fingers deftly removed the safeties from the device. _This is how it ends._

After she removed the last failsafe, she resealed the box. It had already begun to heat up, and she quickly tossed it behind them, leaving it on the street to be trampled by the Grimm that followed them.

Yatsuhashi turned toward a home nearby and quickly kicked the door open, intent to spend their last moments not being pursued by Grimm. He slammed the door shut before gently lowering Velvet to the ground nearby. He quickly barricaded the entryway with whatever was around: a chair, then a bookshelf, then a desk. Anything and everything he could find to brace the door, he used.

Finally, when the pounding of the door stopped and the Grimm moved on to weaker prey, he turned to his Faunus companion. A rumbling had already started to come from the distance, and they didn't have much more time together.

Velvet squeezed her partner's hand as she laid on the floor, her hip shattered from the Boarbatusk's charge. The light in the room faded around her as the pain washed over her in waves. _It will all be over soon._

She felt Yatsuhashi lay his hands on her and begin to recite words in a language she didn't quite understand. Slowly she felt a warmth spread through her body, as her aura was inundated with his.

The rumbling in the distance was upon them, and all around them a white light flooded the home, passing through the walls without damaging them, but anything organic began to disintegrate, Yatsuhashi included.

Velvet slowly regained full consciousness only to have her eyes assaulted by Yatsuhashi's body falling away like dust in the breeze.

"Yatsu! NO!" She struggled to sit up, but her broken hip restrained her from moving toward him. Helplessly she watched as her best friend was falling to horrific pieces before her.

The wave of light spread through her, but the additional aura from Yatsuhashi kept her with enough to outlast the dust bomb's effect. Yatsuhashi smiled at her one last time as the rest of his body crumbled away to ash.

"No!" She reached out, but nothing was left of him except his aura that he gifted to her in his last moments.

Tears sprang from her eyes, and she slowly laid back down, unable to process what had just happened, paralyzed by the events that had just unfolded in front of her.

"Please don't leave me. I don't want to be alone," she whispered to the void.

No one answered.

She broke down and cried.


	5. The Cavalry

"Penny."

The ginger haired girl turned to the soldier that addressed her. "Yes sir?"

"I know this is your first live encounter, but be sure not to get as… overzealous… as you've been in training, alright?"

"Yes sir."

"Just remember that people live in these houses, alright?"

Penny gave a vigorous salute. "I will remember that, sir!" She saved the reminder as a new protocol to follow and recalled her previous training missions. All of the enemies that had run against her had been androids, but she had downloaded information on all of the known types of Grimm, and had installed combat protocols to teach her how to engage basic level enemies. What the sergeant had been referring to was her liberal use of her destructive powers in those training missions.

"Good, good… You don't have to call me sir by the way," he replied before averting his gaze a bit sheepishly, checking around the hull off their attack ship for anything interesting while they waited to drop into Vale.

Penny knew what was causing him to act odd. General Ironwood had told the sergeant that she had full autonomy, but also that he and his men were assigned to protect her. Technically he should be the one in charge, but Penny knew that his orders seemed to conflict, so she tried to acknowledge him as much as possible.

A crimson glow filled the hull, and the rear of their attack ship opened up to the empty space beneath them.

"Alright," the sergeant had to yell over the engines and wind rushing behind them, "We'll be dropping on the perimeter of the outbreak to prevent the Grimm from spreading into anymore of the city. The other teams will be doing the same, but since we're dropping on the main road-" he shot Penny a glance, "-we'll be pushing all the way through to each of the evac sites to-"

"What the fuck is that?!" A nearby soldier shouted, pointing towards a brilliant sphere of light in the distance, rapidly increasing in size.

Penny quickly ran diagnostics on the light. "Pure dust explosion. 1500 meter radius from my primary scan."

"Damn Atlesian measurements. That'd 9 or 10 blocks, right? Couple thousand feet?"

"Yes, that is approximately 5000 feet." _4921.26 feet to be precise_, she wanted to say, but her behavior subroutines discouraged precise measurements when communicating with non-androids.

The sergeant shook himself out of his momentary trance of viewing the explosion and turned back to finish briefing the strike force.

"Alright, we'll let the other teams handle whatever the hell happened over there, we still need to stick to our mission." The sergeant quickly wrapped up his brief while the team made a final check on their gear before their drop.

Penny moved up to the ramp, scanning for an optimal place to insert her team. The Grimm seemed to envelop the main road once they approached the perimeter, apart from a few small pockets where battles were likely taking place. Penny zoomed into the nearest pocket to them on the main road.

Red.

_Ruby?_ Penny tried to zoom in further, but the red cloaked figure was facing away from their attack ship. Whoever it was didn't seem to be moving, but beyond that, she couldn't make out any more detail.

"Sergeant, we're going to drop now, ok?" And with that, Penny leapt from the attack ship, 20 elite soldiers behind her in an instant, all free falling toward the ground to take on the Grimm.

Penny angled herself to steer as close as possible to the pocket she believed Ruby to be in. _100 meters, adjust course_. Penny rotated her torso, turning her feet down and slammed into the ground, the force of her landing cracking the pavement around her.

People live in these houses. The sergeant's instruction popped up in her data queue, and she immediately registered regret at ruining the pavement.

Her escort had landed by now, splitting up to cover different areas. One pair had landed on the roofs on either side of the street to provide overwatch for the teams on the ground. Two teams of six moved to the side streets flanking the main road to make sure they wouldn't be flanked while the 4 remaining soldiers stayed well behind Penny, ready to provide backup in a moment's notice.

"Alright kid, this is your show. If anything goes wrong, or they start overwhelming you, activate your distress beacon and we'll open fire right away."

"Understood, sergeant." Penny quickly began an easy jog toward the action.

Beowolves, Ursai, Creeps, and Boarbatusks all turned their attention from the rubble around them to face the young girl.

She quickly deployed her blades, cutting through the first wave with a flick of her wrist, and the next with a sweeping move of her other arm. Quickly she cut through the Grimm in front of her, making short work of anything smaller than an Ursa Major, and even those she barely had to slow down to fight.

As she closed in on where she suspected Ruby to be, the amount of Grimm thinned out considerably, with an unusually high amount of rubble and fire around it, as if there had been another explosion nearby.

Her analysis of the area coupled with the extreme use of her combat functions drained her, and she stopped a moment to recover some lost power.

Suddenly three Ursa Majors rumbled out of a nearby home, smashing a hole through the wall not 10 meters from her. Penny, devoid of energy for combat, quickly pulsed her emergency beacon.

Shots rang out instantaneously, sniper rounds from the rooftops tearing the first two to shreds while the rearguard peppered the third with assault rifles, crippling it before it even had a chance to fight.

*Penny? What was that? Malfunction?* the sergeant's voice crackled over her internal radio before the third Ursa had even hit the ground.

"No sir, nothing like that. I just used a little too much power while fighting, sir."

*Remember, 20 percent is always in reserve. Once you get there, pull out to recharge.*

"Understood sir. I will remember that." She overrode her protocols to disregard the reminder. _20 percent is too much, it's much more efficient to hold at 15 percent, but the sergeant won't understand that. _

A few seconds passed by as she recovered enough energy to press forward again. Meanwhile, her escort checked in with each other, giving reports on the flanks as well as receiving reports from other teams around the city.

The explosion had in fact been pure dust, or as the soldiers on the radio referred to it, a "dust nuke". _Soldiers always have the most curious vocabularies_, she thought while listening to their chatter. Apparently the breach was already clear, as well as the region on the complete opposite side of the main road as the dust nuke, as well as of course, the region affected by the nuke. For the most part, the city's infrastructure seemed to be intact apart from the main road.

Penny's battery indicator pinged that it was fully charged and she resumed her push towards Ruby's location.

After hardly any more resistance from Grimm, she approached the circle she saw from the sky. Rubble and fire formed a makeshift barrier to the pocket, keeping Grimm out from reentering the area. Penny easily traversed the rubble as her team quickly set up a perimeter on the intersection while calling for evac for the civilians trapped inside the corner building.

But none of that interested Penny. She was interested in the little girl in red, cradling a boy in her arms. Cautiously she approached, unsure of what to do. Only when she circled to approach from in front of the pair did she recognize Ruby. There was something off though…

"Ruby?"

Ruby didn't acknowledge if she heard Penny, she just continued to weep and squeeze the boy in her arms.

A few more steps closer. "Ruby? What's wrong?"

She heard her this time. Ruby's head shot up, her face stained with dirt, blood, and tears. Her silver eyes stared through Penny as tears flowed freely.

Penny realized what was off. The boy was missing his left arm.

Ruby buried her face in his chest again, gently rocking back and forth, quietly mumbling into his chest. Penny immediately pinged her one of her team's medics with her location, and within 10 seconds he was there and at Ruby's side.

"Hey, what's your name, sweetheart? Can you tell me your friend's name? What about what happened?"

Each question was only met with more muted sobbing.

After a quick glance back at Penny, the medic gently placed his fingers on the boy's neck, checking for a pulse, although Penny already knew the outcome.

"I'm sorry sweetie, but your friend isn't coming back. Can you come sit over here so I can make sure you're ok?"

More crying.

Slowly he pulled her arms off of the boy and set him on the ground. Ruby sat there, broken, while the medic put a black tag on her companion before turning to move her somewhere more protected.

As soon as he placed his hands on her arms to pick her up she began screaming, scrambling away from him, fear in her eyes as she lunged for Crescent Rose.

Penny sprang after Ruby, scooping up Crescent Rose before she could turn it on the medic.

"NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!" Ruby kicked out at the medic, dragging herself away from the man while never taking her eyes off of him.

"Ruby, no! He's only trying to help!" Penny quickly knelt next to the young girl, holding onto her while the medic prepped something to sedate Ruby.

Ruby squeezed tightly to Penny's arm that wrapped across her chest, unable to tear her eyes away from the needle that the medic had prepared for her. She squirmed, and pulled her legs in as tight to her body as possible, ready to kick out at him.

"Hey, it's ok, I'm only here to help. Look, this is just going to help you relax a bit so we can help patch you up, ok?" He took a step forward and she sent a kick at his kneecap, catching him with enough force to knock him backwards. He quickly tried to close the distance again, but Ruby had begun thrashing wildly, screaming at the top of her lungs for him to get away.

After pulling her friend close and stopping her flailing arms, the medic managed to stick the needle into Ruby's arm and pushing its contents.

"Shhh, it's alright now. You're ok, no one is going to hurt you."

Ruby slumped almost immediately, teetering a moment on the edge of consciousness before falling into that abyss. Penny watched as the medic gently took Ruby from her arms and moved to the makeshift hospital inside the building behind them.

Penny turned her attention to the boy on the ground. _Ruby seemed very attached to him, but why?_ He had messy blonde hair and was in good shape, but she didn't think Ruby would react that way over someone just because they were handsome. _No, he must have meant much more to her than that. _

Meanwhile, the cavalry had arrived. General Ironwood's army of Atlesian Knights had landed and had begun quickly pushing out all of the Grimm in the city. The new fighting force meant her time was up for the field, and she headed to the roof to meet her escort for evac.

As she waited for her airship to touch down, she noticed the boy Ruby was with being loaded into a Bullhead nearby, destined for the morgue.

"Wait!" Penny called out to the men carrying the boy away. "Would you kindly load him onto this aircraft?" The soldiers shrugged and consented, quickly transferring the body onto Penny's attack ship. "Thank you."

The sergeant gave Penny a quizzical look, but kept his mouth shut as the aircraft took off, headed for home base.

…

It was night time when they touched down back at their home base, and Penny immediately had the boy put on a stretcher and wheeled it down the dark hallways herself. Not many people knew that the person she was going to see was in Vale, and even fewer knew his actual location. But Penny always knew where he was.

The wheels on the stretcher squeaked as she came to a stop outside a nondescript door deep within the building. She knocked lightly on the door frame before silently opening the door and taking a step inside the dimly lit room.

The only light came from a single bulb across the room. Gadgets and gizmos laid haphazardly on desks and shelves produced startling shadows throughout the room.

A quiet muttering came from the room's only occupant, seated beneath the light in the far corner of the room, his back turned to the door as he feverishly worked on some new contraption.

Penny quietly approached the figure, stopping well away from the lonely silhouette.

"Father? Can you help this boy?"


	6. The Rose Pt 1

The room was ink black, the shadows swirling around her. A figure emerged, distorted and demonic, a grotesque skull for his face.

"What do we have here? A plaything for me?"

"No! Please no!" Ruby strained against her restraints, the rope digging into her flesh as she squirmed to get away from the fiendish entity.

His eyes burned red in their sockets as he reached out for her. She shrank away at his touch to hear a familiar voice.

"Ruby, hey, it's me! It's Yang. It's ok, I'm here now."

Ruby opened her eyes to see Yang, eyes burning red as the blood spattered across her whole body. Yang's golden locks floated around her in the nothingness, adrift as if she was in the sea. Everything about the scenario was surreal, yet the intensity Ruby felt of every moment was overwhelming, threatening to drag her down like a wave. Ruby fought to hold onto any sense of reality in this world, terrified of what was around her, yet with no way to fight it.

Yang knelt beside her, her motherly smile twisting into a pained grimace as she laid her head in Ruby's lap. The inky shadows around them swelled and exploded, replaced with a blinding light that scorched everything it touched. Ruby raised her hands to shield her eyes, bewildered by finding them free. She looked down to see not Yang in her lap, but Jaune staring up at her.

"I'm ok Ruby, don't worry about me." Jaune's arm trailed away in a river of red that twisted to wrap around his body, billowing into a cloak.

The cloak enveloped him, obscuring his face and body. Ruby reached down to clear the material from his face, but to her horror, Jaune's body was replaced with her own.

Her face was pale and was sprayed with blood, cold as ice to the touch when she moved to wipe her face. The simple move made her head spin, and the emptiness around her pressed in to overtake her before she could right herself. Black walls crept into her visions, slowly threatening to envelop the young huntress before she could regain her bearings.

Ruby focused on breathing, pushing all thoughts from her mind as she tried to stop the pressure around her from crushing her. Slowly she felt the world around her return to normal, and she opened her eyes.

Above her, standing somberly, was her mother.

"Mom?" Ruby's voice was a mixture of shock, confusion, and feverish rejoicing.

Until she didn't respond. Her white cloak billowed around her, with her hood pulled over her face, obscuring any sign of emotion. Ruby struggled to run to her mother, but she was trapped. Flat on her back with her hands resting over her chest, her body was unable to respond to her mother's calls. An icy chill spread through her limbs the longer she laid there, paralyzed in the pit of darkness.

_Am I… dead?_ She looked up and saw through her mother's grave marker. No, _her_ marker. She was the one beneath it, and her mother was the one standing before it, wracked with grief.

_No! I'm still alive! Mom!_ Ruby tried to scream, but the cold had locked her jaw shut. Then her mother began to scatter into the void, leaving nothing but dust and rose petals behind her as the darkness consumed her.

The world around her dissolved in the same way, the marker falling apart into ash as Ruby's bindings gave way and releasing her to the abyss beneath her.

Ruby's eyes snapped open as she jolted awake in a cold sweat.

Her memories of the past several hours were almost completely gone, but she remembered being treated and taken back to Beacon. She inhaled deeply, trying to slow her breathing. The cool winter air of their dorm was flavored slightly by the bunch of roses that her team had gotten for her.

For today. Her birthday.

As the reality set in, Ruby's breathing became wracked with quiet sobs. Ruby quickly put a stop to them as each movement sent a searing pain through her abdomen. She gradually forced herself to stop crying and blinked the tears from her eyes, unwilling to even bring her hand up to wipe them away for fear of another bout of pain from the deep cuts that stretched across her stomach.

Her eyes finally cleared, and were now adjusted to the dark. She looked around the room. She was on the bottom bunk, on Weiss's bed, with Yang curled up beside her, snoring quietly. A peek over Yang's brilliant mane revealed that Blake was fast asleep in her bed, and Yang's bed was still undisturbed, meaning Weiss had elected to take Ruby's bed instead.

"Yang."

No response.

"_Yang._" Ruby accompanied the whisper with a nudge.

"Mmhm, yeah? I'm up," Yang replied, her eyes still shut as she responded while still half asleep.

"I just want to sleep alone tonight."

"Wha? Oh, ok. I gotcha," Yang rubbed her eyes before shifting off the bed. A few steps had her to Blake's bed, where she proceeded to plop down behind the Faunus, pulling her close and nuzzling into her dark hair. Yang's snoring picked up almost immediately after that.

Ruby's mind wandered back to her nightmares. They were all extremely vivid and equally terrifying, but the one that she cared about most was of her mother. _It has to mean _something, _or else there was no way I'd think of it._

Ruby sat up, gritting her teeth through the pain before swinging her legs to the side of the bed, leaving her feet dangling off the side. Slowly she slid to the edge of the mattress and stood, careful to not stretch and reopen the wounds across her midsection.

She padded over to the closet at the foot of their beds and silently cracked the door. Inside, her red and black combat skirt was hanging amongst her other clothes. She pulled the outfit out and examined it.

The front was in tatters and the sleeves were stiff with dried blood. Her silver rose insignia on the belt had cracked, and blood had tarnished the surface of the metal. She ran her hand through the cape at the back, and her fingers easily found holes in the material.

Ruby sighed and dropped the ruined outfit into the nearby trashcan. She returned to the closet and removed her gray, black, and red winter outfit. Gingerly she changed out of her pajamas and into the combat uniform, trying to make as little noise as possible. She fastened her boots and pulled her hood over her head before grabbing Crescent Rose and heading for the door.

As she grasped the door handle, she looked back at her team. Yang and Blake were snuggling together in Blake's bed while Weiss was curled up in a ball on Ruby's bunk, squeezing a pillow tightly to her chest as she slept peacefully.

_I should ask her to come with me. We are partners after all..., _Ruby's mind immediately flashed back to Weiss yelling at her the previous night. She had placed a higher value on her family's name than on Ruby, on her _team_. No, she would go alone.

Softly she turned the handle and exited the room. One last glance behind her, then she started her journey to Summer Rose's marker.

* * *

Sunlight streamed through team RWBY's dorm and warmed Blake's ears. She had begun sleeping without her bow now that her team knew her secret. It wasn't such a big thing, but the emotional freedom it afforded her was blissful. Blake yawned as she rolled over to check the time, but was instead now nose to nose with Yang.

"Yang!" Blake's ears flicked upright as she angrily whispered at the blonde figure laying before her.

"Mmhm?" Yang didn't even stir as she responded, likely still dreaming about riding her bike into battle against ten Ursai or something ridiculous.

"What are you doing in my bed?!" Blake didn't blame her though. Despite agreeing to just stay friends, the events of the previous day weighed heavily on her, and she was welcome of the company.

"Huh? Oh, Ruby said that she wanted to sleep alone," Yang absentmindedly scratched Blake's ears before opening her eyes.

"Yang!" Blake immediately scrambled backwards, fully alert.

"What?! What's wrong?"

"Your eyes…"

Yang swung herself off the cot and strode over to the closet at the end of the bed. She opened the door and cleared the mirror that they had hung there.

A gasp escaped her as she saw her eyes. They were no longer pure discs of lilac. A sunburst of blood red surrounded her pupil, threatening to overtake the entire iris.

Yang shut the door to the closet, attempting to play off the seriousness of the situation, "Ah, don't worry about it! Looks badass if I do say so myself." Blake knew that her partner was deeply troubled by the change, but decided not to push the issue as Weiss had finally woken up.

"What are you two dolts talking about?"

"My awesome new eye color. Would you like to _Schnee?_"

Blake and Weiss groaned in unison as the heiress slid off Ruby's bunk. "I can see them from here fine, thank you." Weiss turned to her bunk, "Ruby-" and stopped at the empty bed. "Where is Ruby?"

"Maybe in the bathroom?" Blake immediately volunteered, hoping to prevent any hysteria when a level head could take care of her problem.

"Crescent Rose is gone." Weiss's response was hollow.

"She could have gone to put it in the armory?" Any option was better than what they all knew had happened.

"No, she used to sleep with it if she had the chance. Dad had to explain to her that the damn thing could cut her in half if she forgot to lock it one night, but she'd always keep it close to her if she could."

The silence that followed was deafening, filling the room with a heavy mood. Blake was the one to finally shatter the silence, but only replaced it with the question they all dreaded to ask.

"So then where is she?"

* * *

**Author's Note: **After a severe case of writer's block coupled with an insanely busy week, Chapter 6 will be split into 2 parts, with Part 2 releasing 5pm CST on Wednesday, March 11th. My apologies for the split, I'll be back with Chapter 7 as normally scheduled. Thank you again for your patience and support.


	7. The Rose Pt 2

She had finally made it. Almost two days of walking in the cold, hardly stopping to eat or sleep, but she had made it.

Ruby sank to her knees in front of the marker and brushed the snow from the stone.

Her mother's rose was revealed, the same symbol that Ruby had adopted in her mother's memory after she had disappeared. _The last Rose of Summer_, _left blooming alone. _And Ruby was truly alone at that moment.

Waves crashed into the white cliffs that the slab was situated on. The winds brought the sea and snow across the flat plateau to buffet the young woman seated before the memorial, but she remained there, undisturbed by the weather for a long time.

Ruby's silent meditation was disturbed by a roaring from the cloudy sky, preceding a Bullhead that pierced through the dark veil and flew in overhead. Ruby ignored the disturbance, content to remain where she was.

The airship hovered behind her for a minute before the faint sound of feet crunching in the snow made their way to her. Soon the Bullhead rose, illuminated by the moon's shattered glow as it sailed overhead before disappeared back into the overcast sky.

A single pair of footsteps approached her, and Yang appeared by her side. Her sister crouched down and pressed her hand to the marker. She hung her head for a long moment, paying her respects to their mother.

"Ruby." Yang turned to her and pulled her into a tight embrace, holding her head close with one hand.

The blonde squeezed her tight before letting go. "Hey, I know it's been a shitty couple days, but you need to come back home."

_No._

She pulled her black and cream coat tighter around her, shielding herself from the wind. "Ruby, I know that it's been a lot lately, with Jaune and-" she caught herself before continuing, "-and… _that_."

_That. _That_ was not something she would ever forget. _

"Will you at least tell me how you're handling it?"

Silence.

"I'm worried about you. It's been almost two days that you've been gone, we didn't know where you were."

_I can take care of myself. _

"Can you please talk to me?"

* * *

Blake watched as Yang unsuccessfully tried to coax Ruby into speaking to her for another 10 minutes while she and Weiss stood out of earshot, waiting for their leader to come back to them.

"Look, it's getting dark out, and we'll all freeze if this storm picks up any more. We should go try to talk to her."

"Yang said to give her a chance to talk to her alone; I say we respect that."

"It's been 20 minutes! She's not going to do _anything_ to change Ruby's mind." And with that, Weiss started towards the pair.

Blake caught her wrist and pulled her back. "Weiss, maybe you shouldn't be the one to talk to her."

"Why not? I am her partner after all."

"Just… trust me on this one. Let me try first."

Weiss frowned, but acquiesced. "Fine. But 20 minutes. That's it, then I'm going to speak to her."

Blake nodded and headed toward the sisters.

Yang was still pleading with Ruby to say something when Blake approached them. "Yang, maybe you should let me and Ruby talk for a little bit," the Faunus was as gentle as possible with her partner.

A moment of silence. Yang looked up, hesitant to even take her eyes off of Ruby. "Y-yeah. Ok," she nodded slowly before turning back to her sister. "Will you be ok without me?"

Blake grimaced as an almost awkward silence hung between them.

"Ok, I'm just going to be over here, alright?"

Ruby's head dipped almost imperceptibly, but it was enough for Yang, who visibly relaxed at any sign of life from her sister. The blonde made her way back to Weiss, who was somehow impatient enough to be tapping her foot already.

Blake sat down quietly next to Ruby, crossing her legs and pulling her collar up to keep the cold away. She was the only one of her team whose outfit wasn't torn or bloodied from the battle, but nevertheless chose to don her longer sleeved outfit to brave the storm.

Ruby said nothing.

Neither did Blake.

They sat there for a long time in silence.

"I'm sorry."

Blake blinked, surprised at the apology. "For what? You don't have anything to apologize about."

"I blame you, and I know I shouldn't. I know it's wrong, but I can't help it. I don't hate you, but I don't know if I can ever forgive you."

_What?! _"Ruby, what are you talking about? I'm sorry if I did anything-"

"Crescent Rose," she pulled the weapon from her hip and laid it on her lap. "It was broken, and Jaune died protecting me when I tried to fix it."

"I…"

"It must have been damaged when you were fighting, and I didn't check it before we got on the train, and Doctor Oobleck made me stay back, and then when we split up in the city I didn't try to open it up until I was all alone. I tried to do my best without it deploying but there were just so many of them and then Jaune showed up and-"

Blake cut her off with a hug. "It's ok. I know." A few tears from Ruby wet her shirt, but her leader managed to hold it together. "I'm sorry, Ruby."

Ruby clutched her tightly, but said nothing.

They sat there holding each other for a long time before Ruby pulled away. "Are you ready to come home?"

"Not yet."

Blake hesitated to ask her next question. "Do you want to talk to Weiss?"

Ruby nodded without a word.

A sigh escaped from the Faunus's lips and froze in the air before her. _This won't end well…_

She rose from the snowy ground, the powder crunching as she regained her feet to bring the news to the anxious duo.

Blake slowly approached the pair, her thoughts running at a mile per minute as she tried to find a way to tell Weiss what was about to happen.

"So? What'd she say?" Yang clutched her jacket to her body as she posed her question.

"She wants to talk to Weiss."

Yang froze in place. "I… don't know if that's the best idea. Maybe I can talk to her again, convince-"

"Why would that be a bad idea? She wants to talk to me, so why shouldn't I? Besides, neither of you have had luck so far in getting her to come home."

Blake and Yang exchanged tortured looks before turning back to the heiress. Yang started. "Weiss, before you go talk to her, there's something you need to know."

"And what is that?"

Blake picked up, "Ruby has always been… a bit attached to you, don't you think?"

"Well, yes, but she's just a bit overeager is all, I don't-"

Yang cut in quickly. "Just listen right now, ok?"

The sharpness of Yang's remark left Weiss speechless, and all she could do was nod.

After a quick glance to her partner, Blake continued. "Like we were saying, Ruby has always liked you. At first we thought she just had a schoolgirl crush on you, but it's developed into something more than that. Do you know why she went alone to the dance?"

Weiss shook her head.

"Because she wanted to dance with you," Yang finished. "Remember when you two were stuck in the elevator that one time?"

"Yes, for three hours," Weiss quietly replied, knowing full well what they were trying to tell her.

"When they finally got you both out of there, you know what she told me? 'Yang,' she said, 'Yang, I wanted to tell her everything, that she was pretty, and smart, and just so perfect, but I couldn't say anything because I knew she liked Neptune.'"

"But…"

"If she wants to talk to you, you have to go, but she's not emotionally stable right now. I wouldn't expect the best judgment from her," Blake continued.

Weiss hesitated before opening her mouth as if to say something, only to then shut it again without a word. She turned stiffly and walked rigidly toward Ruby.

* * *

Ruby heard the snow crunch as Weiss approached.

"Ruby, you can't stay out here, you'll freeze."

_She didn't even sit down. _Ruby looked up to her partner, trying to look into her eyes, but Weiss quickly averted them, determined to not make eye contact it appeared.

"Why won't you look at me?"

"Ruby, I… I'm sorry this happened to you, I really am," Weiss eyes strayed back to her, and Ruby locked onto them immediately. The white haired girl shook her head, sending her ponytail whipping in the building winds.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Alright, then let's go back-"

"No, I've got to tell you something first."

Weiss's jaw clenched, but she said nothing.

_Don't be cold. Not now, not when I need you. _"Weiss, I need you. I need you to hold me and tell me everything is ok, that we can make it better, that I'm loved. That you're not going to leave me, that this world isn't so dark, that there is some light ahead of us. I need you," tears sprung from Ruby's eyes as she finished, "_Please._"

Weiss's already pale skin turned even whiter, and the muscles in her jaw tightened even more before she responded. "Ruby, I-I can't. I know what you're asking of me, but I can't give that to you."

"What does that mean?" Ruby's heart was pounding in her chest, desperate to escape the bony prison in which it resided.

"I don't- I _can't _feel that way about you. We're friends and we're partners. That's it. You're just confused about our relationship, and I'm not interested in other girls anyway."

"You're not going to even give me a chance?" Ruby's heart beat was slamming in her ears, drowning out all thoughts except fear and anger.

"You don't really feel that way, Ruby. You just think that's what-"

"I know how I feel!" Ruby's voice had grown to a shout, but the wind carried it away before it could reach farther than Weiss. She rose and marched toward Weiss, coming to stand toe to toe with the heiress. "This isn't just some crush, I love you!"

"You're too young to know what love is!"

_There it is again. Always too young. After everything in the last few days, no one understood that this was something that she needed to handle on her own. But Weiss was the one person that she wanted to stand beside her. But no more. This was too much. _Ruby stared daggers at Weiss, her voice dropping dangerously low as she whispered her next words. "Because I'm a child? That's what you said before."

Weiss stood, shocked, as Ruby turned away from her and sped past Blake and Yang, leaving nothing but rose petals and snow in her wake as she left her team behind, intent on making the trip back to Vale on foot.

Blake and Yang hurried over to Weiss to find out what happened while the storm whipped around them all, and the shattered moon hung in the night sky above them.


	8. The Divide Pt 1

The alarm clock rang, shrill and incessant just as the sun was peeking through the dorm's windows.

_We all need a little extra sleep, _Ren thought as he reached over Nora to shut the alarm off. He and Pyrrha were the only two that could be trusted with keeping an alarm clock next to their beds, as Nora would turn it off before she went to sleep, and Jaune- Ren's thoughts were derailed by the realization that Jaune was no longer here.

Not wanting to believe himself, he sat up in his bed, careful not to disturb a sleeping Nora. The room felt so empty without their leader. Nora and Jaune's beds were in the middle of the room, unoccupied. Pyrrha laid still and alone on the furthest bed, the sunlight catching on her crimson hair. She was strong, but Ren knew that Jaune's death had impacted her more than she let on.

He looked down at his partner. Nora's ever-present blush was splotchy from where she had slept on her arm, and drool had collected on one corner of her mouth. Her short orange locks smelled of cinnamon and sweet honey. _So peaceful. It'd be a shame to wake her, _he he knew that letting her get off of her schedule would only lead to chaos, so he gently roused Nora, shaking her shoulder slightly to awaken the young Valkyrie.

Nora woke at his touch, and turned onto her back before telling him about the dreams she had, as usual. "Ren? I had this really bad one last night."

_That's new. _"What was it?"

"We ended up going to Vale instead of back home, and then there was a bunch of Grimm, and we split up to fight them, and Weiss was there too- I think I accidentally hit her once or twice, but it was just a dream so that doesn't really matter- and then these robots came and killed all of them.

"The scary part was that after that, Jaune wasn't there anymore. We went to where he and Ruby were, but he wasn't there, and when we asked the soldiers there where he was, they said he was dead. Pretty scary, don't you think?"

Ren took Nora's hands with his own, reluctant to tell her that her nightmare was real. "Nora, I wish I could tell you otherwise." His gaze shifted from her clear blue eyes to Jaune's empty bed. Nora followed his eyes and turned on her side to face the truth.

Nora stared quietly for a minute before sitting up violently. "No."

_This isn't going to be good._

"I don't believe you. He just went to the bathroom. He'll walk through that door any minute and trip on something like he always does when he's tired. You'll see." And with that, she crossed her arms and propped herself against the wall, waiting for the blonde haired boy to walk through their door.

Ren crossed his legs and waited patiently with her. He knew better than to challenge Nora when she got her mind set on things. Soon enough she would realize that Jaune wasn't coming back and would move on. But she wouldn't forget.

She never forgets when it comes to people.

Nora made enemies as quickly as she made friends, since she could never forgive people who bullied her because of her family. Not her real family, the one that had adopted her, but the family that had left her on Ren's doorstep when she was just a baby. The family that pillaged and murdered any village weaker than theirs. The Valkyrie family. The pair had grown up together in fear that her family would come back to take her back once she was older, but as time passed, their fears faded. Not everyone's though. There were still plenty of families that said she was a murderer, that it was in her blood to do so. And when some of the bullies came after her, intent on eliminating the Valkyrie spy in their midst, she broke their legs. But the elders didn't care.

The council determined the only way to prevent Nora from plotting against the village was to make sure she was never alone. Nevermind that the bullies had brought a bodybag, she was the one in trouble because she defended herself. So Ren volunteered. They were family after all.

They sat there in silence, watching the door until the golden sunlight warmed their room completely. Pyrrha finally stirred, and immediately twisted to look at Jaune's bed. The redhead was immediately crestfallen at the sight of his empty bed. _It seems we all had the same bad dream. _

Pyrrha rose from her bed across the room, the sheets falling away from her revealed her toned body. She slept in a nightdress, but the sheer fabric fell around her in such a way that you could still see how athletic her body was when she stood in front of the sunlit window. She was modest, but sensual all the same. _After almost an entire year together, Jaune never realized. And now it's too late. _

"Is everything alright?"

"Nora just needs a little time to process."

Pyrrha walked over to Ren's bed and sat down on the edge, careful to not disturb her grieving teammates. She kept her hands folded in her lap, as if unsure of whether or not she was allowed to console them.

All three sat watching the door while the sun rose a bit higher in the sky.

Finally, Pyrrha rose without a word and crossed the room to her and Nora's closet. She pulled her nightgown over her head and slid her panties off, standing nude in the corner furthest from the door for a moment as she removed the towel from her closet and wrapped it around herself. Normally she would be much more careful about how much skin she showed, but today was not a normal day. She collected Nora's towel and moved walked back to the pair on the bed.

Nora and Ren hadn't moved an inch, but when Pyrrha extended the towel to Nora, the ginger haired girl lashed out. Her hand connected with the towel, sending it to the ground, and Nora broke down.

"Why did we split up?! We could have stuck together! H-he could have signalled that something was wrong! What happened to him?! How did it happen? I just…" Nora's tears were flowing freely now.

Pyrrha stooped down and plucked the towel from the ground."Take a shower. It will help," she said, a melancholy smile creasing her face.

Nora looked to Ren, as if searching for an answer in his vibrant pink eyes. _Keep moving forward, _his look said.

His partner nodded and rose from the bed, numbly taking the towel and stripping on the spot, throwing her clothes haphazardly onto the bed before donning her towel.

Ren slid off of the mattress and undressed quickly before wrapping his own towel around his legs. None of the team ever cared about seeing each other naked except- except Jaune. Ren had to remind himself for the third time that morning that the brother he never had was gone.

The three remaining members of JNPR exited their dorm and slowly headed down the hall to the showers, careful to not make much noise as most teams were still sleeping off the terrible events of the prior day.

When they entered the showers, they parted ways, moving to their respective showers. Ren hung his towel on a nearby hook before he twisted the knob for the shower he was under, sending hot water onto his tired muscles. The water cascaded down his body, following every line of his body. Normally he would quickly scrub off while Jaune asked him questions about their classes or told him about he and Pyrrha's training session the night before, but today was not a normal day. He scrubbed off his body and let the water run through his hair for a few minutes as he meditated.

When he had finished collecting his thoughts, he shut off the shower and dried himself off as he made his way back to the entrance of the bathroom. He rounded the corner quietly, and was greeted with the sight of his freshly showered teammates hugging each other. Nora had her back to him, her towel wrapped about her body as she clutched Pyrrha. Peeking just over the top of Nora's towel was what appeared to be a tattoo. _But Nora doesn't have any tattoos…_

Pyrrha looked up and locked eyes with Ren. _Is she alright? _

Pyrrha's nod told him that Nora had accepted Jaune's death. The redhead squeezed her small companion once more before heading towards the door. Ren held the door, letting both girls through before following them back to their room. Pyrrha produced her scroll and let them back into their dorm. Normally Jaune would get the bedroom door, but this was not a normal day.

They all donned their uniforms in silence. There was no class today, but they had volunteered to work at the infirmary, as the civilian hospitals in the city were overflowing with patients, and Professor Ozpin had volunteered the use of Beacon's infirmary and spare dorms to house the wounded. Students were asked to assist the staff with taking care of all of the injured, but those that had lost teammates or friends were exempt. However, Pyrrha had determined that work would be the best way to get their minds off of what had happened, and neither he nor his ginger haired partner complained.

Ren pulled his jacket onto his shoulders and moved to the door, his team in tow. When he opened the door, familiar faces were on the other side.

Weiss was speaking to Blake and Yang as she exited their room across the hall, "-do we start? We don't even know when she left, much less where-" Weiss stopped herself short when she saw the three members of JNPR exiting their room at the same time.

"Is there something wrong?" Pyrrha asked.

The three members of RWBY all exchanged looks before Yang answered. "Ruby's gone. She left sometime in the night, and we don't know where she went."

"Can we help look?" Ren shook his head at Pyrrha's offer. _Always eager to help others, never able to ask for help, _he thought.

Blake answered Pyrrha. "Thank you for the offer, but I think this is something we need to do as a team."

"Of course," she replied before turning to Yang and continuing, "I'm sorry."

Yang nodded. Nobody said a word about her eyes.

They stood together in silence for a few moments in remembrance of their leader's battle together and the brave acts that both had performed.

The teams nodded to each other before heading off in opposite directions without a word.

As they made their way through the desolate hallways, Ren was mystified at Nora's silence. Normally she would be going on nonstop about how she didn't have breakfast yet, or how quiet the school was today, or about the one time she fought however many Ursai by herself. 'Oh yeah, and Ren was there too!' was always her line. But today was not a normal day.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Due to travel and another busy week, I have been forced to split Chapter 7 into 2 parts in order to keep the quality of the chapters at the level I demand of myself and that you have come to expect. Part 2 will release next Saturday at the normal time in place of Chapter 8, which subsequent chapters all delayed one week. I apologize for the two straight weeks of 2 part chapters, and thank you again for your patience and support during this busy time of my life.


	9. The Divide Pt 2

"Where can we help?" Pyrrha's strong, compassionate voice carried over the murmuring and soft cries in the infirmary.

The head nurse immediately turned to the trio of new arrivals. "Oh, thank you so much for volunteering, we've been up to our necks with patients. You two," she nodded at the girls, "Come with me, I'll show you where to go. Young man, you can start by going down that row and checking if anyone needs their bandages changed."

Ren nodded solemnly as Pyrrha and Nora were hurried away by the nurse as she hustled to show them their work area. Ren let out a small sigh as he turned to somberly face his assignment._ Better me than Nora._..

Slowly he made his way down the line of beds, gently checking each patient's bandages. Most appeared to have been changed recently, likely by the few professors that were scattered amongst the isles. Ren didn't spot but a handful of teachers that appeared to have been seriously injured, the majority of patients being civilians and students that had been in the city when the attack started.

As Ren moved further down the line, he noticed a group of students huddled around one bed. After checking the patient before the group, he finally recognized the group around the bed: it was Cardin and his cronies, huddled around Sky.

"Excuse me."

Cardin twisted to look at Ren. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Just making sure he's alright."

"Of course he's alright! He's fine, can't you see?" Ren looked to the young man on the bed. Sky had scars running all over his upper body and a sickly green, black, and blue welt covering half of his face.

"I think I should check him to be-"

"NO! He's fine!" Cardin was standing now, towering over Ren.

"If you say so."

Cardin's eyes were ablaze as he stared down the quiet young man.

Ren simply walked to the next bed where a rabbit Faunus was lying on her back in very apparent pain. _She looks familiar…_

Cardin's booming voice derailed Ren's thoughts, and he turned back to see what the bully was saying. "She doesn't belong here. That filthy Faunus doesn't deserve any care. So why don't you go put her out in the forest where she belongs?"

The silence that followed was deafening. The entire wing of the infirmary had turned to face the commotion.

"Cardin, I know you're going through some rough times," Ren gestured towards the unconscious Sky, "but you're not the only one that is in pain right now."

"I don't give a damn what's happening, my partner is lying in that bed, and that _animal_ is getting the medicine that he needs!"

People were beginning to rise, some concerned, some angry, but none of them welcomed the disturbance.

Dove and Russel leapt up and grabbed Cardin before anything worse could happen.

"Hey, let's go man."

"Yeah, Cardin, we should leave."

Cardin glared at Ren for a moment, then turned to the Faunus on the bed. "You don't belong here," and with that, tore his arms free from his teammates and strode out of the makeshift hospital, Dove and Russel on his heels.

Ren watched as they exited, never taking his eyes off of the trio until they rounded the corner and left through the large oaken doors. Once they were gone, he turned to the girl on the bed.

"Sorry about that." The girl's features sparked his memory, and he recognized the Faunus. "Wait… Velvet?"

Velvet was on the bed, quietly sobbing. She was different though. Her hair was cream colored, and her ears were a light chocolate brown instead of her normal brunette. She looked startled at her name, and turned to face Ren. Her normally brown eyes were now aquamarine, bright and clear.

"How…?"

She lowered her head and averted her eyes. _Where is her team? _And then he understood. He knelt next to her bed and grasped her hand. "I shouldn't have asked."

Velvet shook her head as she wiped the tears away with her free hand. "I know you're just trying to help." She gave him a soft smile and gestured to her hair before continuing, "This is from being so close to the explosion and surviving." Her smile faded into a frown as she remembered her fallen team. "Thank you for being here, Ren, but I think I just want to be alone right now."

"Of course," he replied before rising and moving on from her bed to continue his assignment.

He hadn't been to 2 more beds before Professor Goodwitch approached him, Nora in tow. "Lie Ren?"

"Yes?"

"I need you to come with me."

Ren nodded and followed the professor out of the infirmary and into the hallway, where she hesitated a moment before turning to the pair.

"I want both of you to know right now that the most important thing is that you two have each other, and that there was nothing you could do."

_This isn't about Jaune. If it was about Jaune she would have brought Pyrrha._

"Understand that what you did was very brave, and your leader made the decision he felt was correct at the time. That decision saved countless lives, including other students."

_However._

"However, I regret to inform you that the village you were originally tasked with reinforcing-"

_Our home._

"-Was destroyed during the events yesterday by unrelated forces."

_Unrelated forces. _"What do you mean?"

Professor Goodwitch stole a lightning fast glance at Nora before answering, "A group of bandits attacked the village. There was really nothing that they could have done, they were overwhelmed."

Nora was the first to respond, "What does that mean? Did Mom and Dad make it out?"

The professor shifted her weight awkwardly, unsure of how to proceed. She cleared her throat before pressing onward, "I'm sorry, Ms. Valkyrie, but the village was razed to the ground. There were no survivors."

The world had just collapsed on Ren. _Father, Mother, both gone. _His jaw locked and his gaze was set. "Who?"

"...A group of ban-"

"**Who?!"**__Ren was shouting, his ears pounding with blood as he hunted for the truth.

Professor Goodwitch was not one to back down though. "Young man, I know this is hard for you, but this is not-"

"Was it them?" he turned his finger to Nora. To the Valkyrie.

The professor's silence said it all.

Ren turned on his heel and stormed off down the hall.

Nora ran to catch up with him. "Ren, I'm not one of them! You know that, we grew up together!"

"This is your fault! We knew they would come back for you, and when they didn't find you they killed my family and slaughtered my village!" His words were the wedge that he drove between them, venom dripping on every syllable.

"They're my family too! You don't mean that!" she said as she reached for his arm.

"Don't touch me," he said, ripping his arm away from her hand. "You're one of them."

Nora stopped dead in her tracks.

"No I'm not."

Ren turned on her, ready to throw more at her, but she had already begun walking back the other way, turning her back on him.

_Good. _He turned and ran up a flight of stairs, headed for the roof.

Up one flight, his heart was pounding. Up another, it slammed into his ribcage with every pulse. Up one more, it was ready to explode.

Finally he burst through the door to the roof, the same one that Jaune and Pyrrha had frequented for their late night training sessions. Ren recognized it from the few times that Nora had dragged him along to spy on the pair. He moved out of the cover of the building, stepping into the gale that raged around him.

The fierce winds thrashed at his body, desperately clawing at him, as if possessed by demons. The previous day's fires had still to be put out completely, and the smoke that was billowing out of the flames caught on the air and were carried to Beacon. Ren inhaled deeply, breathing in the ashes of the battle as the sulfur burned his eyes, drawing a few tears from the sting.

The wetness in his eyes reminded him why he came up here. His anger reared its ugly head and he approached the edge of the roof, full of rage and hate. Towards Nora, towards Jaune, towards anyone that he could think of.

But there was nothing he could do. He realized that, and the maelstrom of hate inside him was replaced with soul crushing regret. He sank to his knees, his spirit breaking as he fell. It wasn't Nora's fault, yet he pushed her away. He had called her unforgivable things.

Things that she would _never_ forget.

He reached into his shirt and pulled out the necklace that Nora had made him when they were children.

'_Ren, look what I made! You see? It's a Tai… Tai…. Taiji-'_

'_A Taijitu, Nora." _

'_Yeah! That! It's a Tai- that thingy and the Sun and Moon! You'll be the Moon, I'll be the Sun!'_

Ren turned the semicircular talisman in his hands. The pendant was black with small scratches for the eyes of the two-headed snake and the shape of the shattered moon. It was a simple, childish thing, but Nora had insisted that both parts fit together. It was almost all in vain, as she hadn't held onto hers for 2 weeks before she lost it.

But Ren had kept his around his neck for over a decade, tucked beneath his shirt wherever he went. He examined the pendant once more, tracing the markings with his thumb. Ren's mind stirred as the familiar image tried to resurface somewhere in his mind.

_The tattoo…_

That's what he saw above her towel. Nora's half of the Taijitu. She always said she wished she never lost it, and now she never could.

_She will never forgive me. _

The realization rocked Ren, and he sank further into the pit of despair that he found himself in. He laid there in the cold, broken and alone.


	10. The Grimm

The wind sliced through Weiss's jacket as she approached her partner, snow crunching under foot with each step. The shattered moon bathed the entire plateau in an eerie light, with Ruby's red cape whipping around her in a fury. Weiss shivered and hugged her arms to her chest as she came to a stop next to her teammate.

"Ruby, you can't stay out here, you'll freeze." Weiss's mind was still swimming with the information Blake and Yang had just told her. _Does she really feel that way? _Her eyes shot from the cold stone marker in front of her to the short haired girl on the ground before it.

Ruby was slumped down with her legs crossed beneath her and her head tilted to the ground. She looked broken, but not defeated. Strong and beautiful, but delicate in this moment. Ruby turned her head to look up at Weiss, but the heiress averted her eyes immediately.

"Why won't you look at me?"

The question caught her off guard. "Ruby, I…" For once Weiss was at a loss for words. Her eyes strayed back to her partner as she continued. "I'm sorry this happened to you, I really am." She wanted to say more, but everything inside her was telling her that it couldn't happen, that it would never work.

"I don't want to talk about it."

A small feeling of relief washed over Weiss at the remark, followed by guilt at the feeling. Still, she pressed on, intent to do what was best for her partner. "Alright, then let's go back-"

"No, I've got to tell you something first."

_Oh no. _Weiss's jaw clenched, and her mind began racing at the thought of what was to come. What Ruby was about to say, but she couldn't. Her heart was a battleground, both sides warring for control of what her lips would say.

"Weiss, I need you. I need you to hold me and tell me everything is ok, that we can make it better, that I'm loved. That you're not going to leave me, that this world isn't so dark, that there is some light ahead of us. I need you." Weiss felt the blood drain from her face and her stomach drop as she listened. Her head spun, and she fought to hold onto any semblance of normality that she had before the past week.

_I know she feels this way, but I can't. _One side of her heart roared in protest._ I _can't _feel that way, I like Neptune and… and Father would never permit it. _Her thoughts were drowned out as the sides clashed once again, sending the white haired girl into a panic. "Ruby, I-I can't. I know what you're asking of me, but I can't give that to you."

"What does that mean?"

That simple question was tearing Weiss apart at every moment, stripping the icy walls she had built around her heart and exposing her to love and all its beautiful tragedy. She had to respond though, Ruby deserved that much.

And so she chose to protect herself. She rebuilt her walls, safe with the boy from Mistral, ever-fearful of her father's wrath. "I don't, I _can't _feel that way about you. We're friends and we're partners. That's it. You're just confused about our relationship, and I'm not interested in other girls anyway." She tried to believe herself as the words forced their way out of her.

"You're not going to even give me a chance?" Ruby's voice spurred on the battle inside of Weiss, fueling the fires that tried to breach the icy walls.

Weiss panicked, logic fleeing her as her emotions warred against each other. She desperately searched for words to make the feeling stop, not thinking at what damage they could do. "You don't really feel that way, Ruby. You just think that's what-"

"I know how I feel!" The short haired girl had risen to her feet and was now standing defiantly in front of her partner. "This isn't just some crush, I love you!"

It was too much for Weiss, she needed to escape, but her legs were frozen in place. Her heart froze, and the words tumbled out before she could stop them. "You're too young to know what love is!"

The look Ruby returned her was all she needed to know what she had done, but her leader's whispered words twisted the knife that Weiss had impaled herself with. "Because I'm a child? That's what you said before."

Weiss's entire body locked up, unable to respond, even if Ruby had given her the chance. Rose petals were all that remained as Ruby fled her team.

_What have I done?_

"What the hell happened?!" Yang's voice shook her from her stupor as the blonde and her partner sprinted up to the heiress. Yang's eyes blazed red through the storm, burning into Weiss as she searched for answers.

"I… I… I didn't know what to say."

Blake took over as Yang turned to search for Ruby. "Did she say where she was going?"

Weiss could only shake her head.

Yang immediately sprinted off to find her sister, the events from a few days prior still fresh on all of their minds.

Weiss's body took over as her brain still tried to recover, and she almost mechanically took control of the situation. "We have to find Ruby." She grabbed the Faunus's hand and pulled her after Yang, but her mind was elsewhere as they raced into the storm. _What have I done? _

The duo sprinted hand in hand, careful not to become separated as they hastily followed Yang's footsteps before they were lost in the snow.

"Call the Bullhead, we can catch up to them easier through the air!" Weiss's words were barely audible over the winds of the snowstorm.

Blake produced her scroll from her pocket and attempted to ping the pilot with no luck. "We can't get a message through the storm! We have to keep going!"

Weiss nodded, and they continued their trek down the path, forging ahead through the cold and the wet, their bond unbreakable.

As they moved further and further down the slope of the cliff, the storm tapered off, and trees began to pop up around them as the pair entered a forest.

When they had reached level ground, the storm had all but died, the snowfall almost hanging in place, and an eerie quiet had set around them. The sky was clear, and the shattered moon hung above them as they slowed to follow Yang's tracks through the trees.

The pair had let go of each other's hands, but still remained shoulder to shoulder as they moved into a large clearing. Yang's golden locks and Ruby's red hood waited for them in the center of the snow covered field, squeezing each other silently.

Weiss retrieved her scroll from her pocket and pinged the Bullhead pilot with their coordinates, unsure of what to do after that.

"Something doesn't feel right…" Blake was looking around the clearing, as if she could sense something about to happen.

"I know, I made a mistake. I shouldn't have said what I did to Ruby."

"It's not that… I've got a bad feeling about this," Blake's ominous statement made Weiss shiver. "We should go to the others."

As they half walked, half jogged to the sisters, a shadow began to spread from the edge of the forest, crossing the tree line and racing toward them.

Once Weiss and Blake made it to their teammates, the shadow caught their eyes. The team turned to see what was causing it.

Oh the horizon was an enormous silhouette, standing taller than the CCT back in Vale. Tall enough to block out the shattered moon, plunging the clearing into darkness. The silhouette had a vaguely human shape for its body, but its head resembled that of a Boarbatusk crossed with an Ursa. The blood red eyes that blazed deep in the skull told the team that it was a Grimm, but nothing that they had ever heard of, much less seen.

The ground shook as the colossal Grimm took a step toward the team. Howling and roars from the forest echoed around them as more Grimm closed in on the fractured team.

Not a word was spoken as they all stood in fearful awe at the monstrosity rising before them.

"We have to move." The words came out without a thought as muscle memory kicked in, intent on preserving her team's safety. The group turned and began sprinting away from the Grimm blocking out the moon.

_What is that thing? _Her mind raced while her slender muscles pumped, carrying her further away from the titan on the horizon. However, the Grimm were not to be escaped so easily.

Beowolves and Ursai emerged from the snowy forest, closing in on all sides like a noose.

"Where is our pilot?!" Yang had voiced the thought that was on everyone's mind, but to no effect as the Bullhead was still missing. The blonde was glued to her sister's hip as they ran, keeping her body in between Weiss and Ruby.

As they closed in on the wall of Grimm around them, RWBY drew their weapons. Weiss's ears strained for an attack move, but none came. Instead, Ruby simply leapt into the fray, slashing through wave after wave of the monsters. The other two followed suit, attacking without discipline and pushing the boundaries of how well they could fight as individuals, too often leaving themselves open for an attack.

_We'll get overwhelmed if we keep this up, _the heiress thought. She swiveled the dust chamber in her rapier to red and slammed the blade into an Ursa that had lunged at her. The violent dust infused strike sent a fiery blast through the beast and scorched the Grimm behind it as Weiss turned to sprint toward her teammates.

The constant exertion and the bitter cold had caused her breathing to turn ragged and her technique sloppy, but her mind was running at 110%, and she used it to figure out a plan.

A quick glance at the colossal Grimm in the distance told her that they had maybe a minute before it reached them, its enormous size slowing its massive steps enough to buy the team some time.

_We need to get out of here. _

She summoned a glyph and leapt on it, quickly triggering it to launch her toward Ruby.

Weiss sailed over the crowds of Grimm, using Myrtenaster's ice dust to freeze the Grimm below her, forming a makeshift barrier for them to put their backs to. She landed, and immediately called to her team.

"Regroup!" Blake was the first back, protecting herself with her shadows as she deftly scrambled backwards to protect Weiss's back.

Yang and Ruby slowly fought their way back to their teammates, working in perfect harmony to clear a path. Yang would charge forward to deliver a flurry of punches, then spring back and let Ruby finish the beast off with a few quick strikes before springing back to let Yang bust them up again.

The sisters blazed their trail to the wall of ice and Grimm, finally breaking through the line, but as Yang sprung forward for the next opponent, eyes a blood red and hair a fiery white gold, her next blow connected with Weiss.

The heiress was suddenly on the ground, nearly auraless after the one strike, disoriented and struggling to regain her feet.

_What was that?_

The rest of the team surrounded her, fighting with their backs to the makeshift barrier. Weiss stumbled as she tried to regain her feet, but collapsed after taking one step. Stars filled her vision, and everything in front of her swirled.

Weiss planted her hand on the ground in an attempt to steady herself, but her hand unexpectedly grasped metal. Her vision steadied enough for her to identify what she had just picked up.

Her scroll. After desperately stealing a glance toward the colossal Grimm a few hundred yards away from them, she desperately pinged the pilot their coordinates in hopes that he would arrive before they were overwhelmed.

A roar came from over the treetops, shaking the snow from the leaves as their Bullhead sped through the air toward them. The deafening noise attracted the attention of several Beowolves, who leapt to drag the airship from the sky. The Bullhead pulled up sharply to avoid the beasts, but maintained its height as it opened the side doors and hovering 30 feet above the team.

Weiss struggled to her feet and shakily took charge. "Team RWBY, on me!"

The three huntress backed towards Weiss, who summoned a large glyph around all four of them. "Ready?"

"Just do it!" Yang replied through gritted teeth.

And with that, Weiss swept down and then upward, sending the team upward toward the airship. Yang and Ruby quickly turned their weapons to propel themselves horizontally and into the ship with ease.

Blake was next, using her semblance to propel herself toward the Bullhead, but the unsteady movements of the airship caused her to misjudge, and she barely caught the side. Yang hurriedly helped pull her partner up and into the interior of airship.

Weiss was the only one unable to reach the ship, her aura being drained completely after the blow from Yang and making the glyph as powerful as she did. The heiress fell back toward the ground, fearful of what waited below.

Her eyes shot to the giant Grimm and her heart immediately began pounding twice as fast. Its arm was extending toward the Bullhead, intent on crushing the disturbance.

Just as Weiss was beginning to concede her fate, Gambol Shroud sailed past her, the ribbon extending back to the Bullhead. Weiss quickly wrapped her arm around the ribbon and pulled back. The Bullhead immediately banked away from the reaching hand, climbing higher and higher to escape the mass of Grimm that had populated the clearing.

Weiss was slowly pulled up and into the Bullhead, Myrtenaster hanging limply at her side, her hand almost frozen around the handle. Blake and Yang had pulled her back up, but once she was inside the airship and the doors sealed off, Blake was the only one looking after her.

"Blake."

"Hmm?"

"Thank you for saving me."

The Faunus only nodded in reply.

"We have to tell Professor Ozpin about this."

"I have the feeling he already knows." Blake's voice was distant, and her hands stopped momentarily as if remembering something very important. She shook her head, and resumed taking care of her teammate.

Weiss watched the sisters sit across from her, Yang's arm around Ruby, holding her tightly as she whispered in her ear. The only notice she got from either of them was the occasional dirty look from Yang.

A sinking feeling in her gut accompanied her reflection over the past few hours. Ruby would barely even look at Yang, and couldn't stand Blake. But Weiss was the worst off. She had said terrible things, and pushed her partner and best friend away, afraid of what might happen if she went down that path with Ruby.

_She will never forgive me. _

The thought brought the tears to the surface, but she quickly suppressed them, intent to stay strong for her team. Ruby was no longer fit to lead the team, as she had demonstrated over the past few days. Weiss had to lead them, or there would be no way that team RWBY could survive.

Weiss sat up and steeled herself for what lay in store for them upon their return.


End file.
